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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The castle of Nemours, located in the Gâtinais in the extreme south-east of the Seine-et-Marne, is a medieval castle-fort initiated around 1160-1190 by Gauthier I of Villebéon, chamberlain of Louis VII and Philippe-Auguste. Strategically placed on a Loing ford, it served as a lock against Champagne County, an enemy of the kingdom. Its rectangular dungeon, flanked by turrets, and its Roman-Gothic oratory testify to its symbolic and defensive importance. The Villebeon family, ruined by the Crusades, sold it to King Philip III the Hardi in 1274, thus integrating Nemours into the royal domain.

In the 15th century, Charles VI erected Nemours as a Duchy-Payrie for Charles III of Navarre (1404), before Jacques Armagnac turned him into a pleasure residence (1464-1477). The latter modernises the interior: subdivision of the floors, piercing of windows, and addition of carved decorations (accolades, mouldings). Confiscated after the execution of Armagnac, the castle passes into the hands of Savoie (1528-1657), which develops gardens and palm play area. Jacques de Savoie, Duke of Nemours, is immortalized in La Princesse de Clèves as an emblematic figure of the court.

In the 17th century, Louis XIV offered the castle to his brother Philippe d'Orléans, who made it a place of justice: redeveloped dungeons, monumental perron, and symmetrical gate on the street. After the Revolution, the monument became a national monument (1810): school, ballroom, theatre, then workshops for Rodin (1894, unoccupied) and Justin-Chrysostome Sanson. The latter founded the Château-Musée in 1903, classified as a historical monument in 1977. Today, it houses exceptional municipal collections and medieval remains, such as the ogival vaulted loratory or the 30-metre watchtower.

The architecture of the castle reflects its evolutions: medieval three-storey dungeon (subsoil, ground-high, seigneurial floor), five-storey gallery, and disappeared courtyard controlling the Loing. It is a jewel of Roman-Gothic transition, distinguished by its sculpted capitals (dacanthe leaves), its 8-metre warheads, and its traces of polychromy. The modifications of the 17th and 19th centuries (roofs, perrons) contrast with the original defensive elements, such as excavated latrines or splinters.

Since the 19th century, the castle has inspired artists and filmmakers. Victor Hugo described him in 1844 as a "historic mansion" disfigured by his uses (prison, theatre, drying). In the 20th century, it was used as a setting for films (Cadet-Rousselle, 1954) and series (Nicolas le Floch, 2014-2015), as well as ballets (Red and Black, 2021). Ranked among the 20 castles of Île-de-France to visit (Le Parisien, 2024), it combines architectural heritage and contemporary cultural role.

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