En un regard
Le château en bref
In Mérinville, in the Gâtinais east of Montargis, the Château du Pin, sometimes written Château des Pins, occupies a site with a royal history. In the 12th century, Adèle de Champagne, mother of Philip Augustus, is said to have stayed there, and the king acquired the château around 1192. The estate later became a dependency of the Abbey of Ferrières. The present residence was built in the early 17th century on the ruins of the medieval château. In 1821, Marshal Sylvain Charles Valée, a renowned artillery officer and future governor of Algeria, bought and restored it; it was modernised in the early 19th century by the architect Auguste Pellechet. The park combines an English garden, a French garden, a kitchen garden and ponds. In 2011–2012, a descendant of the marshal bought back the estate, which joined the Route des illustres du Loiret in 2023. The château is not protected as a monument historique and remains a private property.