Château de Le Quesnel
THE ABANDONED CASTLE IN FRANCE
‘Château de Le Quesnel’, or ‘Château Sécession’ is an abandoned castle in Le Quesnel (Somme) in France. It was abandoned in 2010 and burned down 7 years later.
During the twelfth century the first château in le Quesnel was owned by the knightly family Le Fort du Quesnel. But the building became a victim of the Thirty Years’ War, it was looted and partly burned down. The property was purchased by Jean Le Fort, who married Marie Damiens. After his death in 1751, his son Jean Baptiste Le Fort built the foundation of the present château. In that time, the castle had only one floor.
A century after its construction, in 1853, the façade of ‘Château de Le Quesnel’ was altered by its new owner Charles Blin de Bourdon, for instance a new pavilion is built, and a second floor was added.
Countess of Lussac
The castle was occupied and bombed during the First World War. After the war, Viscount Bourdon Blin restored the château and gave it to his daughter, the Countess of Lussac. After the Second World War, the property remained uninhabited, and it was eventually sold in 1985. A Parisian lawyer bought the castle. But unfortunately, part of the building collapsed in the late 1990s.
However, in December 2017 the castle burned down, one year after my visit. The huge fire destroyed almost everything, only a part of the façade survived, despite the efforts of the fire brigade.
