The Château de Castries is a

château A château (, ; plural: châteaux) is a manor house, or palace, 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 re ...

Castries, Hérault Castries (; ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Hérault Departments of France, department in southern France. Population Twin towns — sister cities Castries is town twinning, twinned with Volpiano, Italy since 2010. Sights *Châte ...

, 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 Gardens ...

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

Pierre-Paul Riquet 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. Early life Born as Paul Riquet in Béziers, Hérault, Fran ...

.Castries aqueduct
The main house was looted and damaged during the French Revolution of 1789 and was restored in 1828. In 1935, it was bought back by

René de La Croix de Castries René (''born again'' or ''reborn'' in French) is a common first name in French-speaking, Spanish-speaking, and German-speaking countries. It derives from the Latin name Renatus. René is the masculine form of the name ( Renée being the feminin ...

.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 tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

. It is open to the public.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castries, chateau de Institut de France Châteaux in Hérault Monuments historiques of Hérault