Castle of Saint-Maurice-de-Rémens, 18th-century castle in Saint-Maurice-de-Rémens, France.

The Castle of Saint-Maurice-de-Rémens is an 18th-century building with a pale beige facade and a dark gray hipped roof, crowned by a red brick chimney on the left and a decorative finial on the right. Its upper floors are divided into seven vertical bays, and the ground floor has seven tall openings: a central glazed door, shuttered windows and glass-paned doors. Thin string lights and a round dark lamp hang across the front.

Claude Colabau de Rignieux, a former captain in the Bourbonnais regiment, built the château in the mid-18th century. Having no descendants, he passed it to his nephew Jean Marie Alexandre Colabau de Julienas, a former lieutenant-colonel of the Gardes françaises. During the Revolution the two towers were lowered in the name of equality. In 1932 the city of Lyon's caisse des écoles bought it for use as a children's preventorium.

The castle is nicknamed "château du Petit Prince" and "château de Saint-Ex" because Antoine de Saint-Exupéry spent much of his childhood here. He was baptised in its chapel in 1900 and attended a last family Christmas there in 1932. By 2022 almost no furniture remained, but a replica of the aircraft in which he disappeared is kept in the former stables.

The site is currently closed to visitors as renovation work transforms it into a museum dedicated to the writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Check ahead before planning a visit to learn about reopening dates and what will be on display.

In September 1939 the castle was requisitioned for a planned military auxiliary hospital, which led to central heating being installed; the estate was returned to Lyon's school fund on 27 July 1940. In December 1944, TAF pilots supporting the French First Army in Alsace flew from Saint-Maurice-de-Rémens and stayed at the castle, among them the ace Edmond Marin la Meslée of the 5e escadre de chasse.