France · 18th century
The Château d'Hérouville (commonly referred to as Honky Château) is a French 18th-century château located in the village of Hérouville, in the Val-d'Oise département of France, near Paris. The château was built in 1740 by "Gaudot", an architect of the school of Rome, from the remains of an earlier 16th-century château. In the 19th century, it was used as a courier relay station (between Versailles and Beauvais) and stabled hundreds of horses.
Several accounts, including one by the BBC, suggest that in the mid-19th century, composer Frédéric Chopin conducted his love affair with the writer George Sand there. The château was painted by Vincent van Gogh, who is buried nearby. The estate also doubled as a recording studio starting in the late 1960s, producing iconic hit records throughout the 1970s, until its closure in 1985. The studio reopened in 2020.
Text adapted from “Château d'Hérouville” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Château d'Hérouville ranks #1,412 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #109 of the 793 mapped in France. Founded 1740, it is older than 18% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 696 atlas entries founded in the 18th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 9,844 times in the last 60 days, more than 93% of the atlas. 12 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Paris, 32 km away. See how France compares in the castle statistics.
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