Château d'Uzel, Historic castle in Pelousey, France.
Château d'Uzel is a two-storey building with a pale peach or pinkish render, a steep dark grey hipped roof with small dormer windows, and a taller square pavilion on the left. Two chimneys rise from the roofline, and a projecting entrance bay with a balcony sits near the middle of the long facade. It stands on a low rise at 259 m altitude on rue du Séminaire in Pelousey.
The construction date of the Château d'Uzel is uncertain, as its documents were destroyed during the French Revolution; it is estimated to date from the 17th or 18th century. It is first mentioned in 1776, when Claude-Edme Lamy de Laperrière took possession after his 1755 marriage to Claude Alexandrine Bietrix, daughter of a Besançon parliamentarian and mayor. In 1881 the Doubs general council bought it for 50,000 francs, and it was later resold to the Sisters of Wisdom, who moved there the Institution of deaf-mute girls founded in Besançon in 1877.
The Lourdes grotto in the grounds was built in 1919 to mark the parish's preservation during the war and was blessed on 9 October 1921 at the first pilgrimage. It was later bequeathed to the commune of Pelousey, which owns it while the château passed to other hands.
The château stands on rue du Séminaire in Pelousey, at 259 m altitude, on a low rise above a grassy slope. It is now occupied by La ferme d'Uzel, an ESAT structure of the Adapei de Besançon, so the building is a working site rather than a museum; the Lourdes grotto made in 1919 was bequeathed to the commune.
A Lourdes grotto was built in 1919 to mark the parish's preservation during the war and blessed on 9 October 1921 at the first pilgrimage; it was later bequeathed to the commune of Pelousey, which owns it while the castle passed to an ESAT.
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