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Origin and history

The château of Saint-Leu, in Saint-Leu-la-Forêt (Val-d'Oise), was originally composed of two buildings: the château d'en haut, rebuilt in 1645 by Charles Le Clerc de Lesseville on the site of an old seigneurial château of Montmorency, and the château d'en bas, built in 1693 for Lorieul de La Noue, secretary of the king. These two properties were gradually acquired and transformed by influential figures of the Old Regime and the Empire.

In 1774 the financier Jean-Joseph de Laborde bought the castle below and built there an English park, with artificial river, temple and wooden bridge. In 1780 he sold it to the Duke of Chartres (later Philippe Egalité), who made it a summer residence for the education of his children, under the supervision of the Countess of Genlis. After the Revolution, the estate changed hands several times, notably via the knight of Giac, guillotined in 1794, then the Homberg family.

In 1804, Louis Bonaparte and Hortense de Beauharnais united the two castles into a single estate of 80 hectares, renovated by architect Berthault. Hortense, who had become Duchess of Saint-Leu, organized feasts there until his exile in 1815. The estate was then acquired by the Duke of Bourbon, prince of Condé, who died there under mysterious circumstances in 1830 (suicide or accident). His heiress, Baroness de Feuchères, sold the castle, demolished in 1837 for financial reasons.

Today, the estate remains only a few remains of the park and a memorial erected in 1844 at the presumed site of the death of the Duke of Bourbon. The engravings of Constant Bourgeois and historical accounts, such as those of Adolphe de Belleville, bear witness to his past prestige.

The Château de Saint-Leu illustrates the architectural and political changes of the 18th and 19th centuries, linked to prominent personalities of nobility, finance and the Empire. Its park, inspired by the English gardens, and its factories (Swiss valley, devil's bridge) reflected the aesthetic tastes of the time, before its definitive disappearance.

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