France · 19th century
The Château de Keriolet is a castle built in the 19th century in Concarneau (France).
At the end of 1850s, under the Second French Empire, Louis Charles Honoré de Chauveau (1829-1889) met the Russian princess Zénaïde Yusupov. She was in love with him and bought him a title of Count de Chauveau and Marquis de Serre. The Château de Keriolet was commissioned by Zénaïde Ivanovna Yusupov (Felix Yusupov' great-grandmother), and built at the end of the 19th century by the French architect Joseph Bigot.
In 1889, the Count died from a heart attack aged only 60. He had bequeathed the domain to his sister, Madame Emma Prieur, or to his mistress Jeanne Ducos, with whom he had two children, depending on the source. Whatever the case, Zénaïde bought back Kériolet for 1.5 million francs and decided then to donate it, with her lands and her collections, to the department of Finistère.
In 1956, Felix Yusupov won a lawsuit and regained possession of the castle from the department of Finistère. The castle was sold to the city of Concarneau in 1971. In 1988, Christophe Lévèque acquired the castle, restored it and reopened it to the public.
Text adapted from “Château de Keriolet” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Château de Keriolet ranks #2,259 of 9,035 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #171 of the 787 mapped in France. Founded 1883, one of 705 atlas entries founded in the 19th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 4,409 times in the last 60 days, more than 85% of the atlas. The nearest day-trip guide is Brest (France), 71 km away. See how France compares in the castle statistics.
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