Château d'Heilly, Castle ruin in Heilly, Somme, France

The Château d'Heilly is a partly demolished castle in Heilly and Ribemont-sur-Ancre, Somme. Its surviving 18th-century range, rebuilt by architect Pierre Contant d'Ivry from 1737, has a pale stone facade with a round dormer and a central glazed double door flanked by louvered shutters. A round crenellated tower and a taller hipped-roof pavilion stand on a raised terrace behind a round-arched wall and a wide staircase.

The seigneurie d'Heilly passed through the Créqui, Bailleul, Belloy, Hargicourt, Pisseleu, Gouffier, Choiseul and finally Chabrillan families. The medieval castle was burned twice, in 1553 and 1636, by Spanish armies, then repaired. From 1737 Charles Antoine de Gouffier, marquis d'Heilly, had architect Pierre Contant d'Ivry rebuild it in stone, moving part of the village east and rebuilding the church. Sold in 1846, it was demolished the following year and used as a stone quarry.

The seigneurie passed through the Créqui, Bailleul, Belloy, Hargicourt, Pisseleu, Gouffier, Choiseul and Chabrillan families. Anne de Pisseleu, duchesse d'Étampes and favourite of François Ier, spent much of her childhood here and returned in exile after the king's death in 1547; she died at the château in early September 1580.

The ruins stand in the commune of Heilly, near Ribemont-sur-Ancre, a short distance from Amiens. The site was listed as a monument historique in 2009, so the standing masonry is protected and should not be climbed or disturbed. Parts of the former castle grounds lie on private land, so keep to paths and respect fences and signs.

The wrought-iron gates of the park, forged by Jean Veyren, were dispersed after the 1846 sale: the gate with hunting attributes now stands at the entrance of the Château de Bertangles, and another was re-erected by the Chabrillan family at their Château de Digoine in Saône-et-Loire. The vegetable-garden gate, decorated with fruit and vegetables, went to the Château de Marcelcave and was destroyed there in the First World War.