ROSNY CASTLE

Several buildings preceded the present castle of Rosny on this site: a feudal fortress belonging to the lords of Mauvoisin, a castle occupied by the English who finally found themselves in the hands of the Béthune family in 1529. Thirty years later, Anne de Melun, wife of Jean IV de Béthune, Baron de Rosny, gave birth to Maximilien, Duke of Sully, to whom we owe the present appearance of the castle, rebuilt at the end of the 16th century in the purest Henri IV style in brick and stone. The other prominent resident of the castle was the Duchess of Berry Marie-Caroline, who took refuge there in 1820 after her husband's murder, two years after the couple bought the house. The duchess had a chapel built at the entrance to the park to accommodate her heart, and wished to associate it with a hospice for the poor and orphans. The young woman fell in love with Rosny, restored the castle and remodelled the park in English style, had many flowers planted, and embellished the surroundings with orange trees, lemon trees and pomegranates in crates. She populated the park with deer, fallow deer, kangaroos and dwarf deer. Marie-Caroline lived a simple life of rabbit hunting, walks on the Seine, watercolours, horseback riding and botany, until the royal family left in exile with the 1830 Revolution. The property, which was placed in receivership by Louis-Philippe, subsequently housed prestigious tenants until the late 1980s, when the castle was acquired by a Japanese company that dispersed the furniture and tapestries and looted the house before a fire destroyed part of its floors and roof. In the spring of 2016, Rosny Castle was acquired by a French buyer whose project was to rehabilitate the castle and transform it into a hotel residence. And for many months now, work has been ongoing.