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Un peu d'histoire
Fouquet
From the 14th century onwards, the Jubert family owned the lands of Bizy.
In 1675, Nicolas Jubert de Bouville, State Councillor and Intendant of Orléans, raised the seigneury of Bizy to the rank of marquisate. He had a residential castle built.
In 1721, the Duke of Belle-Isle purchased the Marquisate of Bizy. He was the grandson of Louis XIV's Superintendent of Finances, Nicolas Fouquet.
<Portrait de Fouquet, Duc de Belle-Isle, par Maurice Quentin de La Tour
The stables
He retained the Château de Jubert de Bouville and focused on the park. He undertook the expansion of the estate, had a hydraulic network built to supply the Château with water, and landscaped the gardens with fountains and water features.
He commissioned the architect Contant d'Ivry, considered "the best architect in Europe," who had, among other things, designed the grand staircase of the Palais-Royal, to construct buildings forming a courtyard. Today, the magnificent stables still stand. They were built in the style of those at Versailles.
The stables built by Contant d'Ivry in 1741 >
Duke of Penthièvre
In 1749, the Duke of Belle-Isle, who became Marshal in 1741, received Louis XV and Madame de Pompadour.
Having had no descendants, he bequeathed the castle to King Louis XV in 1759.
The king then exchanged Bizy with the principality of Dombes (in the Ain) to the Count of Eu who would bequeath it upon his death to his cousin, Louis de Bourbon, Duke of Penthièvre, legitimized grandson of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan.
<Portrait de Louis Jean de Bourbon, Duc de Penthièvre
Duchesse d'Orléans
The Duke of Penthièvre had the largest fortune in Europe, but he spent most of his income doing good and was keen to personally take care of the poor.
During the Revolution, the Duke of Penthièvre continued to be acclaimed: "Why would the people wish me harm? I have always thought that the high rank analogous to my birth devoted me to sacrificing myself to them."
In 1792, he settled permanently in Bizy with his daughter, Louise Marie-Adélaïde, who, thanks to her marriage to "Philippe-Égalité", became Duchess of Orléans.
The Duke of Penthièvre died in 1793.
In Perlet's journal entry of March 7, 1793, one could read: "Citizen Penthièvre is dead... it was the poor man's patrimony deposited by Fortune in the hands of Virtue..."
The property of the Orléans family was confiscated and the Château de Bizy was declared national property and left to decay.
Property dealers are going to dismantle the Château des Jubert de Bouville and sell it stone by stone.
In 1805, it was purchased by General Le Suire who built a more modest house on the site of the former farmyard of the Duke of Belle-Isle, the only buildings spared during the Revolution. That is to say, on the site of the current main building.
General Le Suire's country house >
Louis-Philippe Ier
During the Restoration, the Duchess of Orléans bought back her properties, including the Château de Bizy.
His son Louis-Philippe, King of the French, would stay there frequently and make improvements: he remodeled Le Suire's house, had the glass galleries built to completely close off the courtyard and had the park laid out in the English style.
The property of the House of Orléans was confiscated again, this time by Napoleon III, and was auctioned off and sold by the State.
<Portrait de Louis-Philippe Ier, Roi des Français
Maréchal Suchet
In 1858, Baron Schikler bought Bizy. He preserved part of Louis-Philippe's transformations, including the galleries of the main courtyard, and built, with the help of the architect William Henry White, the central part, a sumptuous neo-classical style building, which is preserved today.
In 1909, the baron bequeathed Bizy to his great-nephew, Louis Suchet, fourth Duke of Albufera, descendant of Suchet, Marshal of the Empire and 1st Duke of Albufera.
The Vergé brothers are the current owners of the castle. Their grandfather was the 5th Duke of Albufera.
Gobelins tapestry in the castle's main hall >
Maréchal Suchet
The park
The park's development dates back to the 18th century with the arrival of the Duke of Belle-Isle, who created an 80-hectare garden in the French style. This garden was characterized by straight paths, topiary shrubs, and numerous fountains, including a 7 km hydraulic system.
The garden underwent some changes starting with the French Revolution. Although formal French gardens have virtually disappeared, the Bizy estate still offers 80 hectares of parkland, 20 hectares of which are landscaped.
You will discover several 18th-century fountains, some of which have been restored and refilled with water. A lovely English-style park now graces the estate and features many three-hundred-year-old trees; and along some of the paths, you will see the cowshed and its vegetable garden, as well as an icehouse.
Bizy Park is the green lung of the city of Vernon and it will offer you a true moment of calm and connection with nature.