France · Still standing
Château de Vallière
The Château de Vallière is a late 19th-century neo-Gothic château in Mortefontaine, Oise, built in 1894 for the Duke of Gramont. It stands within the Mortefontaine Grand Parc near Thorn Lake (Lac de l'Épine) and retains its original façades, roofs, chapel and a private theatre; the property is privately owned today.
Its prime
1894
Today
Still standing
As it stood in 1894
What Château de Vallière looked like in its prime.
Long, pale limestone façades under a steep, dark slate roofline punctuated by numerous dormer windows and tall ornate chimneys; four prominent circular corner towers capped with conical roofs give a Loire-inspired silhouette. The elevations show regular bays of tall windows and Renaissance-style detailing, set within a wooded grand park beside ponds (notably Lac de l'Épine) and small islands, with terraces opening out to the water and mature trees close to the walls.
Its story
The story of Château de Vallière.
The Vallière estate was carved from the vast Mortefontaine and Montmélian lands that Joseph Bonaparte, older brother of Napoleon I, acquired in October 1798 and held until his exile in 1814. Louis Henri de Bourbon, the last Prince of Condé and already owner of Chantilly, bought the estate in 1829; in 1892 the Corbin family sold its largest part, 3,800 acres, to Agénor de Gramont, 11th Duke of Gramont.
The Duke had the architect Alfred-Philibert Aldrophe build the Château de Vallière in 1894 for his wife Marguerite, née Baroness Marguerite de Rothschild. Neo-Gothic in silhouette with Renaissance-style façades and corner towers inspired by Azay-le-Rideau, it holds thirty rooms, each with its own bathroom, a chapel and a private theatre; the Duke organised pheasant, duck and deer hunts while the Duchess had plays by Eugène Labiche and tableaux vivants performed.
The façades and roofs were listed in the supplementary inventory of historical monuments in 1975, and the park on the edge of the Ermenonville Forest has been a listed site since 1961. A 17th-century tapestry with the Gramont and Guiche coats of arms still hangs in the dining room; the château is now owned by the Emirati businessman Mahdi Al Tajir.
Step inside
9 places to explore in 1894.
The record describes 9 distinct spots at Château de Vallière, including 4 interiors: reception room lit by central glass roof, formal dining room with gramont tapestry, private chapel and more. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
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Recreate Château de Vallière with AI to explore it.
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Clans who held Château de Vallière.
The families that held Château de Vallière for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Gramont
Built in 1894 for Agénor de Gramont, 11th Duke of Gramont, who had bought the estate in 1892; the Gramont arms still hang in the dining-room tapestry.
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