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Origin and history

The castle of Milly-la-Forêt, also named Château de la Bonde, is a French monument located in the municipality of Milly-la-Forêt, Essonne, in the former province of Gâtinais. Built in the vicinity of an artificial island of the L'Ecole River, it is bordered by moats to the north and integrated into the Gâtinais Regional Natural Park. Its history began in the 12th century under the lords of Milly, but it was ruined in 1432 during an English siege. At the end of the 15th century, around 1475, Admiral Louis Malet de Graville reconstructed it and expanded it, transforming the former dungeon into an entrance castle and replacing the drawbridge with a stone bridge.

In the 16th century, the castle passed into the hands of noble families such as the Vendôme and the Montmorency. The south walls are felled down to give way to beds and canals, while the central chapel, dedicated to Valentine's Day, dominates a square courtyard. The modifications continued in the 19th century: the towers of the châtelet were enhanced with brick crenelures, and a new bridge, the Horn Bridge, was rebuilt in 1859 near the wash-house serving as a drinking-pot. In 1964, the Bonde washhouse was restored, and the castle was partially classified as a historical monument in 1972.

The current architecture includes a two towered castle, framed by 15th and 16th century buildings, as well as a park crossed by canals from the river diversion. The commons and washhouse, located near the Collège Notre-Dame, complete the whole. The estate, whose facades, roofs and moat have been protected since 1996, bears witness to the successive transformations, from medieval fortifications to landscape developments of the 19th and 20th centuries.

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