The ''folies'' of the French city of Montpellier are a number of

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. Now ...

x on the outskirts of the city. Comparable to

English country houses An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these people ...

rather than

follies ''Follies'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Goldman. The plot takes place in a crumbling Broadway theater, now scheduled for demolition, previously home to a musical revue (based on the ''Ziegfeld Fol ...

in the usual sense of the term, they were built by the wealthy as summer residences from the 18th century onwards. Some of them had and still have their own vineyards and produce their own

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

s. Jean Giral and Charles Gabriel Leblanc were amongst the

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

s hired by the merchants. The ''folies'' are the visible proof of the wealth of the region in the 18th century. Most of them are built in

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

style, with decorative gardens surrounding them. These gardens are in various styles, both French and

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian ...

as well as those designed in a 'natural' way, in a style resembling but pre-dating

English garden The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...

style. The ''folies'' are owned by wealthy families, and some of them still make wine (especially Flaugergues). Initially built as country houses outside the city, today they are mostly surrounded by suburbs,

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-acces ...

s, outlet stores and the like. Below is a list of the chateaux: *

Château de Flaugergues The Château de Flaugergues is a country house near Montpellier, Occitanie, southern France. It is one of many ''folies'' erected by wealthy merchants on the outskirts of the city. The house preserves antique furniture and a collection of Flemis ...

Château de la Mogère The Château de la Mogère is a mansion near the city of Montpellier in the French region of Occitanie. It is one of many ''folies'' (country houses) on the outskirts of Montpellier, built by wealthy merchants in the 18th century. In 1706, th ...

* Château d'O * Château de la Mosson

References

{{reflist Buildings and structures in Montpellier