Little Versailles

Hidden behind a curtain of green stands a château that once shone as a promise of wealth and ambition. A widow built it here, in the heart of industrial prosperity, as a monument to love and loss.

Built between 1854 and 1861 in the Louis XV style, it grew into the “Little Versailles of the Vosges”: a showcase of stucco work, staircases, frescoes, and refined details, paid for by the golden age of the textile industry and created in tribute to a beloved who died too soon.

Now it is quiet. The windows are shut, life has moved on, but the façade still speaks. Today, the grandeur has faded, but it has not vanished. On the front, four caryatids — the seasons still keep watch, silent bearers of memory. Empty since 1972, slowly reclaimed by nature, this château tells a quiet story of impermanence: how beauty can decay, and in doing so take on a new, moving charm.