Château de Villebon

En un regard

Le château en bref

Villebon Castle, in the commune of Villebon (Eure-et-Loir), 115 km south-west of Paris, is a brick fortress dating from the late 14th century, built by Jeannet d'Estouteville, surrounded by a moat and featuring a Renaissance-style inner courtyard. It received the kings Charles VI, Louis XI, François I and Henri IV, and was the residence of lords such as Jean IV de Beauvau and Thibaud de Sancerre, before Maximilien de Béthune, duc de Sully, lived there for twenty-four years until his death in 1641. The estate includes a French formal garden, the rond de Diane adorned with an 18th-century statue, the Sainte-Anne chapel (bronze bell of 1546, listed in 1943), a 17th-century dovecote (registered in 1981) and a former orangery. The castle, listed as a monument historique since 1927, has belonged to the de La Raudière family since 1919; lived in by Jean de La Raudière, it has been open to visitors since 1994. Marcel Proust is said to have drawn inspiration from it for the Château de Guermantes in *In Search of Lost Time*.