Château de Noyen, Renaissance castle in Noyen-sur-Seine, France.
Château de Noyen stands on Rue du Château in Noyen-sur-Seine. The present house, built of sandstone and brick in 1766–1770 for the widowed Countess of Montchal, has a central block with a triangular pediment and two lower wings, behind a black iron gate and a dry moat. Two 16th-century outbuilding wings flank the cour d'honneur.
François de Kernevenoy, known as Carnavalet and equerry to Henri II, bought the lands of Noyen in 1553 to set up a royal stud farm. A first castle was built from 1554 to 1556 on the royal purse by Philibert Delorme, then in the king's exclusive service. Only the two service wings remain; the present castle was rebuilt in the 1760s for the widowed Countess of Montchal.
The château gave its name to the Carnavalet title: Louis XIV erected Carnavalet and Noyen into a county in 1675 for Claude d'Acigné. The Kernevenoy outbuildings, built 1553-1560 to house Henri II's horses, survive beside the 18th-century house, and the two banded columns from the lost entrance portal were re-erected at the corner of the entrance pavilions.
The château stands on rue du Château in Noyen-sur-Seine, its entrance marked by an iron gate set behind a dry moat, with a wide paved path leading up from the street. The building is not open to visitors; the estate belongs to the Fondation Mérimée, which plans to restore the house and its roughly sixty-hectare park before any public opening. Until then, the gate and the two common wings flanking the courtyard are what can be seen from outside.
The two outbuildings flanking the courtyard of honour were built in 1553-1560 to stable the horses of King Henri II, whose equerry François de Kernevenoy owned Noyen. When the old house was demolished around 1766, the low entrance building and its axial portal disappeared, but two banded, rusticated columns were re-erected at the corner of the entrance pavilions, where they can still be seen.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 93,651 contributors worldwide.