History

Old map of the village of Merville

The name of Merville comes from a Gallo-Roman villa built on this land by a Roman called Omer, in the 1C AD. The original villa concentrated the agricultural and rural dependencies around a large house. Some remnants have been founded and testified of this early occupation. During the Middle-Ages and more precisely at the beginning of the Hundred Years’ War, in the year 1347, Merville was sacked by the English army.

The population decided then to build a new village inside a fortified wall and under the protection of two lords: Madame de Merville and Monsieur de Chalvet. The site chosen was exactly the one where the castle is now situated. A 17C map of the village has been found in the castle’s archives. Inside the walls are some 50 houses and the 2 "strong houses" of the lords-they cannot really be described as castles-. The one belonging to Madame de Merville is on the north-east corner as the house of Monsieur de Chalvet is on the south-east.

A church, dedicated to Saint Saturnin, was erected along the south wall. A drawbridge permitted passage over the moat. A few centuries later, in the 18C, the Wars of Religion and the Fronde - French civil wars - were over. The fortified village became too small and not needed any more.

In 1734, the marquis Henri-Auguste de Chalvet-Rochemonteix, Grand Sénéchal de Toulouse et de l’Albigeois –King’s representative in the Toulouse and Albi region-inherited one of the two "strong houses".
He had two private mansions in Toulouse, one rue Mage and one place du Salin but wanted a country residence.

He decided to buy the whole village, to knock it down (with the exception of the church which will be destroyed by a fire in 1807), to relocate the inhabitants and to build a castle: the one you are going to visit.
He was financially helped by one of his uncle who was Grand Prior of the Knights of Malta.

The construction started in 1743 and lasted until 1759. The marquis designed himself the castle and the park with the help of an engineer from Toulouse, Mr Maduron who also worked for the nearby Château de Larra.

The material used is the brick, the only construction material available in the region in any sufficient quantity.

More than 300 000 bricks were employed coming from a brick-factory installed in the village. The simple but elegant western façade of the castle is typical of Louis XV’s reign. It presents a U shape plan with a semicircular avant-corps, two return wings and 21 bays. A two storeys building with an attic storey and a tiles roof on top of the crowning cornice.

The stone is used for decoration: a mascaron (or mask) adorned the main entrance door, scrolled keystones above the round-arched windows ...

The colour of the shutters has been changed recently for a better contrast with the ochre of the brick. The original colour can still be seen on the eastern façade.

The castle and the park are listed as Historic Monuments since 1987.