Château d'Ô

En un regard

Le château en bref

Château d'Ô is one of the Montpellier *folies*, the country residences built around Montpellier in the eighteenth century. It stands north-west of the city, on an estate that was first agricultural, known as Puech-Villa, and was turned into a country house around 1730. The Montpellier architect Charles Gabriel Le Blanc, owner of the property until his death in 1750, built the present edifice there and laid out a set of gardens (box parterres, Aleppo pines, groves), whose design is attributed to Jean Antoine Giral. The estate owes its name to the major hydraulic works commissioned in 1762 by Jean-Emmanuel de Guignard, Viscount of Saint-Priest and intendant of Languedoc: fountains, basins and a pool for aquatic festivities made it a "château d'eau" (water castle). The Mérimée database notice states that Saint-Priest had acquired it that year. The exterior façades, the park and the hydraulic structures have been listed as historic monuments since the order of 16 August 1922. Owned by the Département de l'Hérault since 1906, the site has become the Domaine d'O, a cultural and theatrical centre whose park is open to the public all year round.