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Recognising the heritage values of nineteenth-century châteaux: issues and particularities

Deadline for submitting proposals: 15 September, 2026

Scientific coordination

Philippe Dufieux, professor at the Lyon National School of Architecture
Gilles Maury, senior lecturer (HDR) at the Lille National School of Architecture and Landscape
Guy Massin-Le Goff, Heritage Curator

Call for contributions

  • 1 According to Jean-Michel Leniaud, in his preface to MASSIN-LE GOFF, Guy, Les Châteaux néogothiques (...)

Since the French Revolution and the sale of confiscated national properties, the question of the château has remained something of a historiographical blind spot, which is paradoxical considering the significance of this type of building in the French landscape. The figures speak for themselves: 1,200 châteaux in the department of Maine-et-Loire, more than a thousand in the Dordogne, 742 in Haute-Vienne, 400 in the Sologne region, between 70,000 and 100,000 nationwide, according to some estimates. In fact, these châteaux represent one of the most important categories of the built heritage in France dating from the nineteenth century, far surpassing churches and public buildings.1

This vast corpus still requires better quantitative assessment, but, in the meantime, how are we to appreciate the heritage values of this building type, in its many and various developments during the years from 1830 to 1914? This is the focus of this call for contributions.

Difficulties of definition

  • 2 QUATREMÈRE DE QUINCY, Antoine, Dictionnaire historique d’architecture, Paris, Librairie d’Adrien Le (...)
  • 3 DALY César, L’Architecture privée au xixe siècle : nouvelles maisons de Paris et de ses environs, P (...)
  • 4 PÉROUSE DE MONTCLOS Jean-Marie, Architecture. Méthode et vocabulaire [1972], Paris, Éditions du pat (...)

According to the Littré dictionary, the word ‘château’ — in its contemporary acceptation — refers to ‘a residence on a seigneurial estate’ or to ‘a large and elegant country house, with or without attached property’. On account of landholding structures in feudal society, the château and the surrounding countryside remain inextricably linked, and this characteristic endures into the contemporary period. Quatremère de Quincy uses the generic term ‘house’, the size and opulence of which may vary,2 while César Daly develops the notion of the ‘villa’ alongside those of the ‘château’, the ‘chalet’, and the ‘cottage’.3 More recently, Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos has preferred the broader term of demeure, or ‘residence’, considering the château to be only one category within it.4 Indeed, the word itself gave rise to confusion from the Romantic period up to the First World War: certain suburban villas deliberately adopted their designation as châteaux, as did other residences of some standing. As such, the notion of ‘château’ entails many ambiguities and does not correspond exactly with the English notions of ‘country house’ or ‘stately home’, which both denote a residence of considerable size and, above all, the rural setting and the landed property generally associated with them.

Within the framework of this present call for contributions, we would like to encourage a comprehensive approach to the château — from residence to landed estate — in its multiple developments and dimensions, in the hope of appreciating this heritage in all its complexity and diversity. Given their scale and their numerous implications, the nineteenth-century château and its large landed estate lend themselves to transversal and multidisciplinary analyses.

Historiography, a mixed state of the art

  • 5 BABELON Jean-Pierre (dir.), Le Château en France, Paris, Berger-Levrault, CNMHS, 1986.
  • 6 BERCÉ Françoise, « Le château en France au xixe siècle », in BABELON Jean-Pierre (dir.), Le Château (...)
  • 7 CHAUDUN Nicolas & LENIAUD Jean-Michel (dir.), La Demeure en France, l'art de vivre heureux, Paris, (...)
  • 8 TOULIER Bernard, Châteaux en Sologne, Paris, Imprimerie nationale, coll. « Cahiers de l’Inventaire  (...)
  • 9 GRANDCOING Philippe, Les Demeures de la distinction. Châteaux et châtelains au xixe siècle en Haute (...)
  • 10 MASSIN-LE GOFF Guy, Les Châteaux néogothiques en Anjou, Paris, Nicolas Chaudun, 2007.
  • 11 BEDON Maurice, Le Château au xixe siècle en Vendée, Fontenay-le-Comte, Lussaud, 1971.
  • 12 ECK Francis & ZAGUEZ, Mickael, Les Châteaux de la reconstruction de l’Aisne, Saint-Gobain, ES, 2018 (...)

It is not very surprising that the historiography concerning nineteenth-century châteaux is a limited one. It was not until the publication in 1988 of the volume edited by Jean-Pierre Babelon, Le Château en France,5 that nineteenth-century châteaux began to be reassessed.6 In recent decades, several publications have pursued the ambition of studying this new era of châteaux - a symbol of the French art of living, according to Nicolas Chaudun and Jean-Michel Leniaud7 - in regional contexts, notably the books by Bernard Toulier for the Sologne region,8 Philippe Grandcoing for the Haute-Vienne,9 Guy Massin-Le Goff for the Anjou,10 and Maurice Bedon for the Vendée.11 These works have complemented by thematic studies, whether on the so-called ‘industrial châteaux’ of Lille and its region or on the châteaux of the reconstruction after the First World War in the Aisne department.12 There have also been monographic studies, which have multiplied over the past twenty years and which could merit a complete inventory.

  • 13 Clive Aslet’s book, The American Country House (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1990) has been th (...)

In contrast, Anglo-American historiography has proven far richer, illustrated in particular by the works of Mark Girouard for England and Clive Aslet for the United States.13 Given the extent of the subject, European and North American examples may be considered in light of their specific characteristics and qualities. Whilst we would like to encourage thematic approaches, certain monographic investigations may prove particularly illuminating, especially when they bring new material to light.

The new golden age of the château

In many respects, the nineteenth century emerges as a new golden age of the château, underpinned by the immense effort of reconstruction in the aftermath of the revolutionary and imperial period. In fact, the château as a building type seems to embody a particular convergence of ambitions and intentions characteristic of the era, sharing the same desire for inscription within a long-term temporal framework tied to a given territory — whether rural or peri-urban.

  • 14 PLANAT Paul, Habitations particulières. Maisons de campagne, villas & châteaux, Paris, Dujardin, [1 (...)
  • 15 Two periodicals worth mentioning: La Maison de campagne : journal illustré des châteaux, des villas (...)

It may be noted here that in France as in England and the United States, a specific body of professional literature developed during the second half of the nineteenth century for architects and their commissioning clients,14 reflecting renewed contemporary interest in agriculture and agronomy, as well as in the art of garden design and botany.15

Themes and Issues

Theme 1 – Heritage issues relating to large-scale programmes

Nineteenth-century châteaux can only be understood in the context of their landed estates, which continued to grow in complexity and to modernize up to the eve of the First World War. The upkeep, restoration and management of this large-scale heritage today create multiple challenges, relating both to keeping the integrity of the estates and parks — in the face of real estate development — and to the maintenance of buildings, given the cost of restoration work and its scale. However, the large estate can also be an asset, insofar as it offers numerous possibilities in terms of public access, events, or even agricultural exploitation.

By their essence, the château and its estate have a special relationship with the territory in which they are located. Our first theme will focus particularly on the planning and organization of landed estates and the specific questions these raise. Do these estates have particular features that can affect their preservation and their interpretation (such as hunting facilities or kennels)? Originally dedicated to hunting or to modern agricultural exploitation and often accompanied by buildings and equipment that can include fairly luxurious installations such as stables, garages and energy-generating systems, not to mention the parks and gardens often designed by renowned landscape architects, should these estates today be seen as assets or, on the contrary, as obstacles to their appreciation? What specific questions are raised by the adaptation of these vast complexes to meet the challenges of sustainable development and climate change today?

Among other themes that may be explored (with possible international perspectives), contributions will also be welcomed on the history of the heritage recognition of châteaux in France and elsewhere, their ‘heritagisation’, looking for example at state-owned châteaux, at the emergence of co-ownership or other private initiatives, etc.

Theme 2 – Construction, layout, and decoration

Our hypothesis is that châteaux which were newly built during the nineteenth-century can represent a privileged sector for aesthetic and technical experimentation and can often be regarded as innovative buildings, characterised by the appearance of special processes (such as fireproof construction) and new, often concealed materials that contribute to the specificity of this building type. But do these particularities require specific approaches to restoration, or even unique modes of appreciation and interpretation?

In comparison with other periods, and in terms of layout and decoration, what issues does the restoration of nineteenth-century châteaux raise today for conservation professionals? What significance, for example, is to be attached to the secondary structural elements in interior design and how can these elements challenge the notion of originality, long criticized in eclectic practices, but now in need of reassessment?

  • 16 Here, we recommend the article by LACAZE, Julien, « Patrimoine contextuel et ensembles mobiliers : (...)

At a time when the proper preservation of historic ensembles of furniture remains extremely delicate, despite recent legislative progress,16 how can legislation and tax incentives evolve in order to facilitate the conservation in situ and interpretation of decorative schemes, objects, and furnishings, often designed as unified wholes?

Theme 3 – From residential use to new uses

The deliberately excessive dimensions of nineteenth-century châteaux and their estates have become a major obstacle to their long-term survival. The uncertainties of inheritances, sales, and spectacular dispersals of furniture have brought considerable impoverishment to this exceptional heritage. During the twentieth century, the dismantling or demolition of built elements — often involving the sale of individual architectural pieces — was a frequent event, usually in a context of relative indifference.

The dispersal of collections or the resale of architectural elements has transformed these places, like older ones, into a heritage that is fragmented and scattered, raising questions about the very notion of heritage itself. From the Château de La Rochepot in Burgundy to the Château de Pontchartrain in the Yvelines, near Paris, threatened with conversion into luxury apartments, such situations are both banal and singular and are often in the news.

This theme aims then to explore issues of rehabilitation, transformation and adaptive reuse in the light of contemporary challenges. Once upon a time, the château was place of dialogue between historicism and technological modernity. Does the nineteenth-century château face a similar challenge today where its adaptation to new uses is concerned?

Does the transformation of these chateaux into hotels or seminar venues (both public and private) reflect earlier permeability between the design of châteaux and that of luxury hotels of the time or the first transatlantic liners?

Where rehabilitation and conversion projects transform chateaux into apartments, often in co-ownership schemes, how can original features specific to these places be preserved, service systems for example such as dumbwaiters, bell systems for calling servants, internal telephones or exceptional installations such as organs, hydrotherapy facilities, tropical greenhouses and so forth?

Theme 4 – Comparisons and networks

Issues related to management, to legal status, and to the regulations applying to this type of heritage may be addressed, in order to compare regional or national situations. Articles interested in the interpretation of the heritage may well raise questions about audiences and about visitor expectations: how can a nineteenth-century château become an attraction?

Does this suppose specific forms of mediation, of high-quality historical information for example that analyses a site and its creators in comparison with similar cases elsewhere, locally, nationally or even internationally?

Can nineteenth-century châteaux be studied and promoted without considering the people who had them built and who lived in them, the daily lives of the wealthy? How, indeed, can the significance of a site be assessed and usefully discussed without examining its place in the broader contexts of local and national history?

Contributions will also be welcomed on questions of architectural style, particularly at regional scales. The analysis of styles, from neo-medieval to neo-eighteenth-century, can help identify coherent groups of buildings. Certain architects had highly distinguished careers both in France and abroad: the names of René Sergent, Paul-Ernest Samson, Alexandre Marcel, Charles Adda, and Hippolyte Destailleur come to mind.

Contributions may take a look at specific heritage collections related to the theme, such as the photographic archive of Gustave-William Lemaire (held at the Médiathèque du patrimoine et de la photographie), who photographed a large number of châteaux in France between 1900 and 1921. Studies of châteaux that have disappeared, particularly during the two World Wars, are also encouraged. Finally, it should be noted here that France’s château heritage can also be approached through guidebooks for tourists, which multiplied during the interwar period and onwards.

Propositions for contributions

The papers put forward should comprise unpublished material in terms of new research, new experiences or new interpretative hypotheses. Articles which have already been published elsewhere will not be accepted. The articles proposed should be generously illustrated and may include sound or audiovisual material. They can include video interviews, or even be made up entirely of such an interview.

If you would like to make a contribution to this issue, please send your proposition before 15 September 2026. It should comprise a summary of about 1 500 characters and a short CV, to be sent to

insitu.patrimoines@culture.gouv.fr
Ministère de la Culture, Direction générale des Patrimoines et de l’Architecture — Revue In Situ — à l’attention de Nathalie Meyer

Copies of your proposition are to be sent to:

Philippe Dufieux : philippe.dufieux@lyon.archi.fr

Gilles Maury : maury.gilles@wanadoo.fr

Guy Massin-Le Goff : massinlegoff@orange.fr

The completed texts are expected for the 1st of March 2027. You may write your article in French or in your usual language. It will be published both in its original version and in a French translation.The articles should be of between 15 000 and 35 000 characters in length.

Recommendations to authors concerning the number of pages, number of illustrations, copyright questions, the insertion of notes and links, etc. may be seen on the review’s site at https://journals.openedition.org/insitu/32424.

Notes

1 According to Jean-Michel Leniaud, in his preface to MASSIN-LE GOFF, Guy, Les Châteaux néogothiques en Anjou, Paris, Nicolas Chaudun, 2007, p. 8. In the Ministry of Culture’s heritage data base ‘Mérimée’, there are today 6,311 notices for châteaux which enjoy statutory historic monument protection, including 132 ‘chateaux forts’, or castles. For the period since the Revolution, 1,337 chateaux are listed as historic monuments, including 250 which were built during the twentieth century or witnessed important alterations during that century.

2 QUATREMÈRE DE QUINCY, Antoine, Dictionnaire historique d’architecture, Paris, Librairie d’Adrien Le Clere, 1832, t. I, p. 362.

3 DALY César, L’Architecture privée au xixe siècle : nouvelles maisons de Paris et de ses environs, Paris, Librairie générale de l’architecture et des travaux publics Ducher et Cie, 1872, 2 vol.

4 PÉROUSE DE MONTCLOS Jean-Marie, Architecture. Méthode et vocabulaire [1972], Paris, Éditions du patrimoine, 2000, p. 471.

5 BABELON Jean-Pierre (dir.), Le Château en France, Paris, Berger-Levrault, CNMHS, 1986.

6 BERCÉ Françoise, « Le château en France au xixe siècle », in BABELON Jean-Pierre (dir.), Le Château en France, Paris, Berger-Levrault, CNMHS, 1986, p. 371-384.

7 CHAUDUN Nicolas & LENIAUD Jean-Michel (dir.), La Demeure en France, l'art de vivre heureux, Paris, Éditions de l'Esplanade, 2019.

8 TOULIER Bernard, Châteaux en Sologne, Paris, Imprimerie nationale, coll. « Cahiers de l’Inventaire », 1991.

9 GRANDCOING Philippe, Les Demeures de la distinction. Châteaux et châtelains au xixe siècle en Haute-Vienne, Limoges, Presses universitaires de Limoges, 1999.

10 MASSIN-LE GOFF Guy, Les Châteaux néogothiques en Anjou, Paris, Nicolas Chaudun, 2007.

11 BEDON Maurice, Le Château au xixe siècle en Vendée, Fontenay-le-Comte, Lussaud, 1971.

12 ECK Francis & ZAGUEZ, Mickael, Les Châteaux de la reconstruction de l’Aisne, Saint-Gobain, ES, 2018.

13 Clive Aslet’s book, The American Country House (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1990) has been through two editions, and Mark Girouard’s, The Victorian Country House, three, the third edition revised and enlarged. Mention may also be made of AIRS, Malcolm (ed.), The Victorian Great House, Oxford, Oxford University Department for Continuing Education, 2000; GIROUARD, Mark, The Victorian Country House [1979], New Haven, London, Yale University Press, 1985 (3rd ed.); GOW, Ian, Scotland’s Lost Houses, London, Aurum, 2006 ; HARRIS, John, The Architect and the British Country House, 1620-1920, Washington, AIA Press, 1985; CROOK, Joseph Mordaunt, The Rise of the Nouveaux Riches. Style and Status in Victorian and Edwardian Architecture, London, John Murray, 1999; SHARPLES, Joseph, Merchant Palaces. Liverpool and Wirral Mansions, photographed by Bedford Lemere & Co, Liverpool, The Bluecoat Press, 2007; STRONG, Roy, BINNEY, Marcus & HARRIS, John (eds.), The Destruction of the Country House, 1875-1975, London, Thames and Hudson, 1974, and WORSLEY, Giles, England’s Lost Houses, from the Archives of Country Life, London, Aurum Press, 2002.

14 PLANAT Paul, Habitations particulières. Maisons de campagne, villas & châteaux, Paris, Dujardin, [1894 ?], 150 pl.

15 Two periodicals worth mentioning: La Maison de campagne : journal illustré des châteaux, des villas, des petites et grandes propriétés rurales, published from 1860 to 1901, and La Vie à la campagne (Country Life), published from 1861.

16 Here, we recommend the article by LACAZE, Julien, « Patrimoine contextuel et ensembles mobiliers : enfin une loi? », in Sites & Monuments, n221, 2014, p. 51-78, available online at https://www.sitesetmonuments.org/IMG/pdf/sppef_patrimoine-contextuel-et-ensembles-mobiliers-sitesmonuments-no-221-2014.pdf [valid March 2026].

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