Today the chateau and its round towers form a curious pink brick silhouette in the village. Its history goes back to the Romans, who built a farm to supply Rome with wheat. Over the years this farm was fortified then, during the religious wars, it became a fortified castle surrounded by defensive moats. Due to the status of marquisate by Louis XIV, the chateau was abandoned. In 1760 it was extremely deteriorated, and it was decided that the architect Liégeon would be asked to re-build a simple residence, using the same underpinnings, in a similar way to 13th century service quarters. During the revolution, the property was seized then re-bought as national property.
http://www.marandoavelo.com/the-offers/tours-heritage/patrimoine-culturel/chateau-de-denonville-denonville

Château de Denonville

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The Château de Baronville is located between Paris and Chartres in France near the town of Béville-le-Comte, Eure-et-Loir.
It rises in the center of a vast park anchored with several lakes. The château was built for grand receptions during the Second Empire and hosted many prestigious guests. The harmonious architecture of the building is the result of a union between spaciousness and refinement in the classical style.
The palace can be visited in group visits and can be rented exclusively. At Baronville, you may celebrate your wedding, hold a seminar or a business meeting, launch a product, or use for a photo shoot or film setting.
From the Roman Empire to the Counts de Rougé
Nowadays' Baronville is the third château built on the same place.
The name Baronville dates back to the Roman Empire. It was at this time that the place was called Baronis Villa, meaning 'house of the baron', itself a title held by 'hommes forts', who were charged with the protection of the empire's borders. In the Middle Ages, the château was a fortified manor house, of which there still remains a significant part of the drainage system, the foundations and cellars. Local legend has it that the Pucelle d'Orléans, or Saint Joan of Arc, saved Baronville and the surrounding countryside from English occupation during the Hundred Years' War.
Between 1620 and 1623, a Louis XIII château was built on the same site by Claude de Montescot and his son, Jacques.
In 1783, the d'Aligre family bought Baronville. Originally from Chartres, this family had already given two great chancellors of France and Gardes des Sceaux: Etienne Ist, marquis d'Aligre, Chancellor of France from 1624 to 1635, and Etienne II, marquis d'Aligre, Chancellor from 1674 to 1677. Etienne François, marquis d'Aligre and count de Marans spent a considerable part of his fortune in restoring the château and its former gardens.
The property of the d'Aligre family, as well as their name and titles, were transferred by marriage to the noble house of the marquess of Pomereu by royal command on 21 December 1825. Armand, marquis de Pomereu d'Aligre, destroyed the second château in 1867 and commissioned the architect Léon de Sanges to design the present château, which was finished in 1868. The same talented workers worked on the roofs of Baronville, of Mont Saint-Michel (France) and on the Statue of Liberty in New York (USA).
During the World War I, Catherine de Clermont-Tonnerre, Viscountess de Pomereu d'Aligre, set up a military hospital on the estate. During World War II, Field-Marshal Friedrich Paulus made his headquarters in Baronville, and several other German units (including the Luftwaffe) occupied the Château. After decades of restorations of the park and the palace, it could be rented for exclusive events since 1980.
The Estate is now home of the Count and Countess de Rougé (see House of Rougé), since the last Pomereu d'Aligre of this line married Count Claude de Rougé.
In 2011, the Count Aymeric de Rougé, great-grand son of the Marquis de Pomereu d'Aligre, restored (or "rebuilt") most of the Carrousel de Baronville, in order to host events and seminars. This part is opening in 2012, after one year of refurbishments.
Famous guests
Among other famous guests, Baronville hosted American model Hilary Rhoda, Korean actress Han Ye-seul, Chinese actress Angelababy, Brazilian footballer Ronaldo, French actress Audrey Tautou, Italian-American actor Alessandro Nivola, Daniela Cicarelli, Roger Hanin, Belgian filmstar Benoît Poelvoorde, Prince Jean of Luxembourg, Anne Fontaine, Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, King of Saudi Arabia, French actress Marie Gillain, Sir Elton John, Mr. Pierre Salinger, Michel Galabru, French actor, Emperor Bảo Đại, 13th and last emperor of Vietnam, Charlotte Casiraghi, Philippe Séguin, as well as a considerable number of French ministers, international diplomats and many others.

Château de Baronville

Built in 1620, the château de la Ballue was, at the begining of the 19th century and in the middle of the twentieth, a priviledged place for the writers and the artists.Although la Ballue was left alone for 30 years – its formal gardens had returned to a wild meadow when in 1973 started their restoration – reinterpreted and with a new design,- they regain nowdays, their original nature besides a contemporary garden inspired by the 17th century baroque play with perpective and light and shadow.
Separated from the formal garden by the wisteria alley supported by 12 colums of taxus, the side garden was designed by two futurists architects François Hebert Stevens & Paul Maymont in the purest mannerist style.
An initiatory path, a green maze which can only be understood at the end of it, so man can have a global vision of it and which offers 13 surprises from the mysterious chamber to the musical one, from the one covered with fern, to the booby trap chamber then to the sented chamber, the green theatre to Diana’s temple, and the maze by itself.
Classical gardens created on the terrace facing south, in the XVIIth century, abandoned, turned into a patato field…
1973 : Creation by two futurist architects of. A diagonal garden of surprises by Paul Maymont, A classical garden by François-Hebert Stevens.
Union of modern geometrical movement and classical symbolism.
A labyrinth of path, play with perspectives & secret chambers.
1989-1995 : Gardens left alone. Everything returned wild and the trees growing high.
1996 : Gardens re-discovered by their new owners Marie-France Barrère & Alain Schrotter.
Playing with the growth of the trees that have become bare at the foot, add of a new vision & a new dimension.
Play with light & shadow, re-creation of some of the inner chambers adding more historical & intellectual references. Harmony in green, blue and white.
Add of side visions.
With passion and originality, expression and transmission of love for harmony between traditional architecture and contemporary art.
1999 : The gardens become a historical monument.
https://www.laballuejardin.com

Château de La Ballue

The Château de Dourdan is a castle in the town of Dourdan in the Essonne department of France.
Construction
The fortification is characteristic of the military architecture of this period. It is built on a square pattern, with towers at three of the corners and an isolated donjon at the fourth. The walls are punctuated by towers in the middle of each side, and two, on the east side, flank the gatehouse. A deep stone-lined dry moat follows the outline of the castle.
The donjon, the major defensive component of the castle, measures approximately 30 metres in height and 13.6 metres in diameter. It is the typical of the donjons being built by King Philip II Augustus of France at this time, like at Rouen and other French nobility throughout the 13th century.
The conception of the geometric pattern and isolated donjon was similar to that of the castle of the Louvre. A near identical castle is found at Seringes-et-Nesles, department of Aisne in northern France.
The principle of the isolated keep was also employed at Flint Castle in Wales, a fortification begun by a Gascon master mason in the late 13th Century.
History
The châtellenie of Dourdan was part of the Crown lands of France (Domaine royal) from the 10th century. The present fortress was built at the request of Philip Augustus in the 1220s in the place of a wood structure.
The castle became the property of Jean de Berry in 1385. It was besieged during the French Wars of Religion. Among some of the notable personages who resided in the castle were Philip IV of France's daughter-in-law, Joan II, Countess of Burgundy, detained there from 1314 to 1315 in relation to the Tour de Nesle affair, and La Hire, one of Joan of Arc's comrades-in-arms.
At the end of the 17th century, the Château de Dourdan was given to the Duke of Orléans who turned it into prison. The donjon was used as a prison until 1852. It now houses a museum of local history.

Château de Dourdan

Château de Bonnefontaine was built at the end of the 15th century and modified over time. Today the fortress is inhabited but its owners let down their guard for visitors longing to explore the 25 ha of landscaped grounds and gardens. Designed and created by well-known landscape gardeners Denis Bülher and Édouard André, the grounds are a typical example of late 19th century English gardens. Stroll around the vast open spaces, which offer sudden surprising perspectives framed by plants or copses. Giant sequoia, cypress and chestnut trees form a silent, majestic setting for this romantic green haven.
https://www.spottinghistory.com/view/3382/chateau-de-bonnefontaine/