Château de Longecourt

History

In the 13th century a moated fortified house here belonged to Robert de Boisleux, and in 1298 it was sold to Duke Robert II of Burgundy. It later passed to the lords of Bar and fell into ruin; in 1421 Duchess Margaret used its stones for a tower at the ducal castle of Rouvres nearby. The Baissey family inherited it in 1459, and from 1495 Antoine de Baissey rebuilt it in brick, a task completed in 1539.

On 27 May 1564 the Baisseys received Catherine de' Medici and the young Charles IX during their grand tour of France. On 9 June 1593 the castle was fought over by the Catholic League and supporters of Henri of Navarre. The estate was devastated by imperial troops in 1636. In 1680 it was bought by Jacques Berbis, and from 1757 to 1761 the architect Nicolas Lenoir, known as le Romain, turned it into a pleasure house for Nicolas-Philippe Berbis.

During the Second World War German officers from the nearby Longvic air base were lodged here. From November 1944 to March 1945 the American 320th Bomb Group made the château its headquarters, while airmen of one of its squadrons lived in tents in the gardens. It was listed as a historic monument in 1946 and is lived in by the Le Gouz de Saint-Seine family.

Architecture

The château stands within water-filled moats. Its brick walls, pierced with larger windows in the 18th century, are decorated with stucco garlands by German and Italian craftsmen, and Tuscan porticoes carry balconies in front of the wings. Inside, the ground floor has a hall with columns and a double staircase, and the great salon upstairs, decorated in the 1750s, is covered in stucco imitating marble.