The Château de Castries is a

château A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions. Nowaday ...

Castries, Hérault Castries (; oc, Càstrias) is a commune in the Hérault department in southern France. Population Twin towns — sister cities Castries is twinned with Volpiano, Italy since 2010. Sights * Château de Castries. There is also a stone aqued ...

, France.Herault tourisme
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Institut de France
/ref>Yahoo
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History

The estate has belonged to the

House of Castries The house of la Croix de Castries () is a French noble family from Languedoc. The city of Castries in the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia was named after one of its members. History Their heraldic shield is "Azure (heraldry), azure, on a cross, ...

since 1465. In 1565, Jacques de Castries undertook the building of a new

. The garden was laid out by

André Le Nôtre André Le Nôtre (; 12 March 1613 – 15 September 1700), originally rendered as André Le Nostre, was a French landscape architect and the principal gardener of King Louis XIV of France. He was the landscape architect who designed the gar ...

in 1666. The aqueduct, to water the garden, was built by

Pierre-Paul Riquet Stele in Toulouse Cathedral Pierre-Paul Riquet, Baron de Bonrepos (29 June 1609 (some sources say 1604) – 4 October 1680) was the engineer and canal-builder responsible for the construction of the Canal du Midi. Background Paul Riquet was b ...

.Castries aqueduct
The main house was looted and damaged during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

of 1789 and was restored in 1828. In 1935, it was bought back by René de La Croix de Castries.Académie française
/ref> In 1985, he donated the house to the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

. It is open to the public.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castries, chateau de Institut de France Châteaux in Hérault Monuments historiques of Occitania (administrative region)