Château de la Juive, Gothic Revival castle in Chalezeule, France
Château de la Juive stands at 3 chemin des Buis, on the edge of Chalezeule beside the Bregille district of Besançon. Alphonse Delacroix rebuilt it between 1850 and 1870 in Gothic Revival style, with a stair turret and a corner échauguette. Rough grey stone, a steep red-brown tiled roof and a pale yellow gabled wing with a narrow arched window face a wooded park.
The earliest archives mentioning the building date from the late 18th century, when Monseigneur de Fresnoy held it as a country house. In 1835 it appears as the property of Mayer Lippman, whose family founded the LIP watch factory. His descendant Léonie Allegri had Alphonse Delacroix rebuild it as a Gothic Revival château between 1850 and 1870, and her nickname gave the house its name.
The nickname "château de la Juive" comes from Léonie Allegri, the Lippman descendant who had the house rebuilt as a castle between 1850 and 1870; her energy and her Jewish faith gave the name, which is still used. She herself preferred the title "Dame de Clementigney". Her 1863 marriage to Count Charles de Turenne, a descendant of Louis XIV, required a papal dispensation because she was Jewish and he Catholic.
The château stands at 3 chemin des Buis, administratively in Chalezeule but bordering Besançon's Bregille district, at the end of the Mont de Brégille within a wooded park. It is a private residence and not open to visitors; it can be seen from the outside, and scaffolding currently covers much of the stone facade.
The castle's nickname comes from Léonie Allegri, who had Alphonse Delacroix rebuild it between 1850 and 1870; her energy and her Jewish faith gave the house the name it still bears. She preferred the title "Dame de Clementigney".
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