Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The castle of Verneuil-en-Halatte was commissioned in the middle of the sixteenth century by Philippe IV de Boulainvilliers, lord of Verneuil. For lack of means, he sold the unfinished yard to Jacques de Savoie-Nemours, whose widow Anne d'Este gave him to Henri IV. The latter offered to his mistress, Catherine de Balzac of Entragues, erecting the land as a marquisate in 1598.

In 1652 Louis XIV raised Verneuil in Duchy-Payrie for Henri de Bourbon-Verneuil, the natural son of Henry IV and Catherine, but he died without heir in 1682. The princes of Condé acquired the castle in 1705 and demolished it in 1734, judging that he "darkly" at their estate of Chantilly. The ruins, invaded by vegetation, gradually disappeared.

In the 20th century, local initiatives saved the remains. In 1987, the commune entrusted the site to the Club du Vieux Manoir, which mobilized young people to clear the foundations. The Serge-Ramond Museum and the Friends of the Old Verneuil also helped to preserve this heritage, now reduced to its foundations.

The site, located on the edge of the forest of Halatte, attests to an occupation since Gallo-Roman times, as evidenced by the remains of a villa called "Bufosse". Verneuil was then a seigneury dependent on the Counts of Saint-Pol, before becoming a political issue under the Bourbons. The surrounding forest, classified as ZNIEFF, also houses a protected Gallic oppidum since 1950.

The Jean-Biondi Bridge, inaugurated in 1951, links Verneuil to Villers-Saint-Paul, symbolizing local ties. Despite its proximity to the Creilloese agglomeration, part of the territory remains integrated into the Oise-Pays de France regional natural park, via the forest of Halatte, a site classified since 1993.

External links