Château de Brienne

Présentation

The town of Brienne had a feudal castle mentioned as early as 951, whose manuscripts mention an enclosure with a keep that was destroyed many times. In 1640, the Luxembourg family sold the feudal castle to Henri Auguste de Loménie. A little later, Nicolas Louis de Loménie inherited the County of Brienne. Among his children, two stood out: Etienne Charles was 1st minister of Louis XVI and Louis Marie Athanase, minister and secretary of state for war. It was he who inherited the old fortress of Brienne in 1757. As it fell into ruin, he decided to destroy it to build the current building. The castle was built according to the plans of the architect JL Fontaine, from 1770 and the pavilions from 1770 to 1772. The inauguration took place on August 25, 1778, the day of Saint-Louis (Louis being at the same time the first name of the king of France and of the Count of Brienne (Louis-Marie-Arthanase) but the works of art, paintings and sculptures were not completed until 1782. All the work of embellishing the park was not finished until around 1789 on the eve of the French Revolution during which Louis Marie Athanase perished on the scaffold. His widow died in 1812. The castle is one of the most majestic of Champagne and by its refined style is nicknamed “The little Versailles of the Dawn”. During the Campaign of France of 1814, the castle was ransacked from top to bottom. In 1852, the The castle belongs by marriage to the Bauffremont family. Its last owner was Duke Théodore de Bauffremont. When the latter collapsed financially, the castle was sold in October 1933 to a property dealer who dispersed the furniture, library and works of art and left the castle abandoned. Purchased in 1955 by the General Council of Aube, it was converted into a psychotherapy center and inaugurated on May 24, 1959, which allowed it to be saved. Visits to the exteriors are now prohibited to the public for security reasons and this until further notice. Some guided tours of the interiors are offered by the ASPB. Contact the Tourist Office of the Grands Lacs de Champagne for more information.