HIstory

Chateau Le Vigneau is a beautiful example of the beginning of French classicism at the end of the 18th century.

It was built around 1780 by the famous architect Edme Verniquet for the Marquis de Folin. Verniquet had made a name for himself by building the sister castle of St. Aubin sur Loire, a few kilometres away on the same hill, and many other castle buildings in Burgundy, but also by creating the grand plan de Paris and planning the jardin des plantes in Paris.

Originally, it was probably a so-called gentilhommière, a house that was used less for permanent living than for stopping in after hunting. The grassy avenue behind the house and the star-shaped layout of the paths in the neighbouring forest indicate that the hunters used to fan out from here on horseback, as was customary in the French chasse à cour.

In the 1930s, the property went to the Puzenat family of industrialists. The new owner slightly rebuilt the house for his son who had been disabled in an accident. The addition of the rear staircase dates from this period, as does the furnishing of the bedroom accessible at ground level, the salons and the dining room with panelling that was probably taken from another castle and installed.

He also had the heart-shaped fish pond built at the lower edge of the property. The long hornbeam arbour was probably also planted at this time. It is not known when the parts of the baroque gardens, which can still be made out from a bird's eye view at the upper edge of the cow pasture, were abandoned.

At the end of the 1990s, the Puzenat family sold the castle and forest to the Freiherr von Eltz-Rübenach family, who held it until 2012.

The family had begun major renovation work, which was continued by the new owners Felix and Elisabeth zu Löwenstein, who made the property suitable as a holiday residence for their large family, but especially to meet today's requirements for renting to other families and groups.

The existing bathrooms were renovated and new ones installed, the kitchen was modernised, the entire second floor was renovated and all the windows with their 1073 small panes were glazed out, stripped and repainted.

In the following years, a swimming pool with a large terrace and pool house, a wood chip heating system and a constructed wetland were built.

In 2018, all the shutters were restored.