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Origin and history

Roberval Castle, located in Oise, is a monument whose present appearance dates mainly from the eighteenth century. He owes his physiognomy to Charles de Rohan, Prince of Soubise, Marshal of France, who had the facades rebuilt in a classical style and decorated the interiors in the Louis XVI style between 1770 and 1780. The roofs, particularly high, could come from an earlier Renaissance castle, marked by Jean-François de La Rocque de Roberval, another illustrious lord of the village, who also had the local church rebuilt.

The castle was sold in 1784 to Achille René Davène, lord of Fontaine, who gave birth to the family branch Davène de Roberval. The building, on one floor, consists of an east-west central body and a perpendicular lateral pavilion. Its sober but refined blonde stone facades are decorated with skylights, egg-eyes and seven red brick chimneys. The south entrance, underlined by a full arch and a carved pediment decorated with coats of arms and swans, contrasts with the surrounding rectangular openings.

The interiors retain a Louis XVI decor inspired by the Petit Trianon de Versailles, with cornices, palmette friezes, medallions and carved panelling. The park, registered to historical monuments since 1993, combines a French-style vegetable garden attributed to the school of Le Nôtre and a vast English-style garden created by Davène de Fontaine after 1784. The latter includes an artificial river, rock fountains, an island with poplars and centuries-old trees such as a Virginia tulip tree or a Lebanese cedar.

The dovecote, partially medieval (mentioned in 1411), preserves an octagonal vaulted hall of dogives and murderers. Reconstructed between 1530 and 1560 under Jean-François de La Rocque, he wore Renaissance frontons and a bell topped by a lead sculpture representing a pigeon on a face sphere. The lower courtyard, an ancient castle farm, reveals remains of the medieval fortress: foothills, flooded ditches (doves), archeries and fragments of ceramics, bearing a rectangular enclosure of about one hectare.

The Prince of Soubise would have rearranged part of the park around 1760, keeping a 700-metre perspective towards the hills of Rhuis, now extinct. A Louis XVI gazebo, built on Mount Catillon, completed this ensemble. The present park, mostly landscaped, is inspired by the principles of Ermenonville (1776), with picturesque elements such as bridges, meadows and woods, reflecting the 18th century craze for "natural" gardens.

The legal protections concern facades, roofs, interior decorations (vestibulum, living rooms, dining room), dovecote and park, registered since 1993. The park's natural site, covering 40 hectares, has been protected since 1947. These measures preserve an architectural and landscape heritage marked by figures such as Soubise and Davène, as well as various stylistic influences, from the Renaissance to classicism.

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