In the 13th century, the fief of Méridon depended on the castellany of Chevreuse. It was a hotel and a house surrounded by gardens and arable land. In 1464, Jean Langlois, esquire, took over the fief, although the manor had been declared in ruins following the Hundred Years' War. Jean Langlois gave his daughter-in-law the fief of Méridon as a dowry on her marriage to Hélie Cauchon, who died in 1526. His son, Dauphin Cauchon, inherited Méridon's fiefdom. The manor was described "as a hotel and manor house with a courtyard, barns, stables, sheepfolds, dovecote and a small tower used as a prison and auditorium for dispensing justice." All enclosed by walls, with a large garden and other gardens surrounding the hotel, and large quantities of pasture and grazing land converted into high woods by fortune of the wars.
Died without an heir, he was succeeded by the Dauphin's sister. She married Mathurin Chauderon, Seigneur de Vaugien, and his grandson, Pierre de Chauderon, became Lord of Méridon in 1579. In 1601, the Hôtel of Méridon was referred to as a Château, and its description was more precise than in 1527:
"The fief, land, seigneury and Château of Méridon consisted of two large main buildings, manor houses enclosed by high crenellated walls, a dovecote, a wine press with stable and courtyard, a small tower used as a prison and an auditorium for holding court; all enclosed by walls and moats with drawbridges".
Jean Péricard obtained permission to build a chapel because of Chevreuse's remoteness and poor winter roads, and received the rights of high, medium and low justice, as well as numerous feudal rights.
The Méridon fief seems to have been divided between Péricard and Alexandre Legrand, Lord of Troux, who also received high justice rights over part of Méridon.
In 1650, Guillaume Dugué de Bagnols, already Lord of Troux, bought Château de Méridon from the heirs of Jean Péricard (Simon Chauvinà) and Alexandre Legrand (Thiboust de Berry); it remained in this family until the end of the 18th century.
In 1882, Count Marqués di Braga, director of Land Credit, bought Méridon, which was in ruins.
He commissioned the architect Eugène Bruneau, Chief Architect of Monuments Historiques at the time, to build the present-day Méridon on the site of the former Château.
The Château's style can be described as neo-Renaissance.
Featuring turrets, mullioned windows, balconnets and stained glass windows, the Château also boasted an English park to the front of the site, and a French park to the right, for a surface area of 7 hectares.
In 1908, the Marquis of Breteuil bought Méridon and converted it into a Château for fox-hunting. From 1909 onwards, he rented it to Henry White, the American ambassador in Paris.
The Château remained empty during the First World War. Madame Sullivan, from American, lived there between the First and Second World Wars; it became known as one of the most beautiful and well-maintained properties in the region.
After the war, the Château was rented by the Dutch state as an accommodation center for people badly damaged by the war. In 1946, a Dutch association set up a continuing education center to train Dutch farmers wishing to immigrate to France.
The French-Dutch Cultural Center association bought the property in 1958 and organized educational courses.
Since 2013, Château de Méridon has been hosting private and professional events such as weddings, birthdays, religious celebrations, corporate seminars, film and TV shoots, photo shoots and more.
La tua salute e la tua sicurezza sono la nostra massima priorità! Ci sforziamo di garantire la salute dei nostri ospiti, così come di tutto il nostro team. Ecco perché abbiamo adottato misure molto serie di pulizia e disinfezione in modo che tu possa sentirti al sicuro e goderti le tue vacanze senza preoccupazioni.
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