Château de Chaumont (La Serre-Bussière-Vieille)

This article is about the ruined 20th century château; it is not to be confused with Château de Chaumont or Château de Chaumont-la-Guiche.
Château de Chaumont
Château ruins in 2017
Château de Chaumont (La Serre-Bussière-Vieille) is located in France
Château de Chaumont (La Serre-Bussière-Vieille)
Location within France
General information
StatusUndergoing restoration
LocationChaumont, La Serre-Bussière-Vieille, France
Coordinates46°03′07″N 2°21′54″E / 46.0518169°N 2.3650146°E / 46.0518169; 2.3650146
Website
chateauchaumont.fr

Château de Chaumont is a château currently undergoing extensive restoration. It is in Chaumont, straddling the municipalities of Mainsat and La Serre-Bussière-Vieille, in the Creuse department of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in central France.

The path leading to the château (rue de Chaumont) lies within the town of Mainsat, while the building itself is situated in the neighbouring town of La Serre-Bussière-Vieille.[1][2]

History

The château was built in 1886 as a home for the opera singer Eugénie Bardet and her daughter, Gilberte.[3]

Children's home: a refuge for Jews (1939–1945)

From 1939, the château was rented to the charity Œuvre de secours aux enfants (OSE) ("Children's relief work").[4][5] From 1940, the history of the château is linked to the rescue of Jews during the Second World War. The Creuse department welcomed approximately 3,000 Jews including 1,000 children between 1939 and 1945. The OSE had three secular reception centres for children in Creuse, including Chaumont, directed by Lotte Schwarz. The Synagogue de Neuilly, created in 1866 in the Paris region, moved in 1939 due to the German occupation of the city to Creuse as it was in the zone libre ("free zone").[citation needed]

In 1940 French humourist Popeck, then four years old, took refuge at the château until 1942.[6] Memoirist Fanny Ben-Ami and her sisters sheltered there for three years before the children were betrayed.[7]

The concert promoter Bill Graham, later based in San Francisco, also spent part of his childhood at the château as a child refugee from the Nazis before traveling to the United States.[8]

At the entrance to rue de Chaumont there is a commemorative plaque.[4][9]

Fire and abandonment

When Gilberte Bardet died, her heirs decided to sell the château. In 1967 the château was sold to Jean-François Mironnet, steward of Coco Chanel, and his ex-model wife. Chanel has therefore never owned the premises.[4]

In February 1986, the building was destroyed by fire and only the external walls remained standing.[10] Mironnet's wife, alone in the château at the time of the fire, managed to escape from the flames by tying bed sheets through a window.[4]

In 2017 the property was put up for sale on the French classified ads website Leboncoin.[11]

Restoration (2022–present)

In 2022 Dan Preston, an English expatriate and founder of the YouTube channel Escape to rural France,[12] purchased the château for a sum total of €60,000 and started its complete restoration.[13][14] Preston's reconstruction was also featured in the television series, Help! We Bought a Village. In one episode he met Popeck in Paris and learned of his wartime memories of the château.[15]

On 25 September 2022, Preston published the first video in a series documenting his restoration of the château, on his YouTube channel.[16] The project has since been chronicled through regular video updates. Initial work concentrated on clearing the site, including the removal of trees and rubble from the fire-damaged structure.[17] By April 2023, Preston had completed the first newly constructed internal floor, enabling further stabilisation of the building.[18] Work on a new roof structure began in December 2023,[19] and the principal roof frame was finished in the spring of 2025.[20] As of January 2026, Preston and his team are installing slate tiles and copper sheeting on the château's roof, a process documented in video updates.[21] The château has been reconnected to mains electricity and water, and a new garden has been laid out on the surrounding grounds.[20]

References

  1. ^ "Cadastral map of La Serre-Bussière-Vieille Plan". Qwant Maps. Archived from the original on 17 October 2023. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  2. ^ "Mainsat (119304)". OpenStreetMap. Archived from the original on 17 February 2023. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  3. ^ Lassure, Christian (7 May 2023). "Insights into the château de Chaumont at Mainsat / La Serre-Bussière-Vieille in Creuse". Architecture Vernaculaire. Archived from the original on 27 June 2024. Retrieved 26 June 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d "Un château ayant recueilli des enfants juifs en Creuse en vente sur Le Bon coin" [A castle that received Jewish children in Creuse for sale on Le Bon coin] (in French). La Montagne. 17 September 2017. Archived from the original on 10 August 2019. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
  5. ^ "A group of girls and their counselor in a children's home under the auspices of the French-Jewish organization OSE (Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants) who saved Jewish children during the Holocaust. Chateau de Chaumont, France, 1943". Yad Vashem. Archived from the original on 9 September 2015. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
  6. ^ Popeck. Je veux bien qu'on rie, mais pas qu'on se moque [I want to be laughed at, but not made fun of] (in French). Paris: JC Lattès. ISBN 978-2-7096-0422-2.
  7. ^ "A young heroine's long journey: When still a child in France, she saved 28 children from deportation". The Jewish Chronicle. 17 November 2016. Archived from the original on 12 December 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
  8. ^ "Bill Graham". Jewish Virtual Library. Archived from the original on 9 July 2023. Retrieved 25 October 2023.
  9. ^ "Le mémorial de Chaumont" [The Chaumont memorial] (in French). La Creuse. Archived from the original on 26 February 2023. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
  10. ^ "À Mainsat, le château de Chaumont - refuge de jeunes juifs pendant la guerre - est à vendre" [In Mainsat, the Château de Chaumont - refuge for young Jews during the war - is for sale] (in French). France Bleu. 27 September 2017. Archived from the original on 16 February 2023. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
  11. ^ Abalo, Hélène (28 September 2017). "Mainsat: le château est à vendre, pas son histoire" [Mainsat: the castle is for sale, not its history] (in French). France Info. Archived from the original on 16 February 2023. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
  12. ^ "Escape to rural France". YouTube. Archived from the original on 16 February 2023. Retrieved 16 February 2023.
  13. ^ Klug, Lisa (16 June 2023). "Saving a Building That Saved Hundreds of Children. Château de Chaumont was a sanctuary for young Jews fleeing the Nazis. Now a British contractor is restoring the French mansion, and documenting his renovations". The Tablet. Archived from the original on 29 June 2023. Retrieved 30 June 2023.
  14. ^ Daniel Preston (23 February 2025). "How much did I buy this for? and what I'm going to do with it". YouTube. Escape to rural France. Archived from the original on 23 February 2025. Retrieved 23 February 2025.
  15. ^ Lampert, Nicole (12 September 2024). "Help! I bought a château — that sheltered hundreds of Jewish kids from the Nazis". The Jewish Chronicle. Archived from the original on 21 September 2024. Retrieved 21 September 2024.
  16. ^ Daniel Preston (25 September 2022). "I just bought a hidden abandoned chateau ruin". YouTube. Escape to rural France. Archived from the original on 21 December 2025. Retrieved 16 January 2026.
  17. ^ Lassure, Christian (2023). "Insights into the Château of Chaumont at Mainsat / La Serre‑Bussière‑Vieille in Creuse". Centre d'Études et de Recherches sur les Campagnes Médiévales. C.E.R.CA.M. Archived from the original on 28 April 2025. Retrieved 16 January 2026.
  18. ^ Daniel Preston (26 April 2023). "The first new floor in the chateau is complete". YouTube. Escape to rural France. Archived from the original on 27 April 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2026.
  19. ^ "En Creuse, un Youtubeur anglais rénove un château du XXe siècle" [In Creuse, an English YouTuber is renovating a 20th century castle]. France Bleu Creuse (in French). Radio France. 14 August 2025. Retrieved 16 January 2026.
  20. ^ a b "Une nouvelle vie, pierre après pierre" [A new life, stone by stone]. La Montagne (in French). Centre France. 17 August 2025. Retrieved 16 January 2026.
  21. ^ Daniel Preston (13 January 2026). "The one with the copper top". YouTube. Escape to rural France. Archived from the original on 15 January 2026. Retrieved 16 January 2026.
allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teau_de_Chaumont_(La_Serre-Bussi%C3%A8re-Vieille)