Louis XIV-Linked Château Hits Market at $23M

A centuries-old French château with ties to Louis XIV is heading to the open market for the first time in nearly 80 years, testing global demand for trophy estates with serious history (and serious maintenance needs).

The Château de la Bretèche, a roughly 16,000-square-foot residence on 44 acres west of Paris, is asking $22.9 million, the Wall Street Journal reported. Located in Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche, about 16 miles from central Paris and just beyond the former boundaries of Versailles’ Grand Parc, the estate traces its royal lineage to the early 18th century.

The property was acquired during the reign of Louis XIV for his legitimized son, Louis-Alexandre de Bourbon, the Comte de Toulouse, who transformed the château into a hunting retreat. While the Comte later moved on to Rambouillet — now one of Greater Paris’ most storied castles — Bretèche retained its aristocratic pedigree. The Comte’s crest once adorned the façade before it was stripped away during the French Revolution.

The listing reflects both that legacy and the realities of owning a landmark estate. The main house includes 10 bedrooms and seven bathrooms, anchored by a Rococo staircase designed in the 1730s by Jacques Hardouin-Mansart de Sagonne.

The ground floor features a suite of formal salons, including rooms decorated with Chinese antiques, while the grounds include multiple outbuildings, a tennis court and a swimming pool stretching more than 50 feet.

The château has been owned since the 1940s by the family of Belgian baron Alain Guillaume, who died last year. His widow, Princess Anne-Marie Guillaume, 89, still occupies a self-contained apartment in the house, but the family says the estate has become too complex to maintain.

The château also carries layers of 20th-century history: German Luftwaffe officers occupied it during World War II and it later hosted Belgium’s Queen Elisabeth when Alain’s father was Belgium’s ambassador to France.

Junot Châteaux & Patrimoine is handling the sale in France, while Compass agent Jane Bark Barrellier is marketing the property in the U.S.

Barrellier told the publication that at roughly $1,500 per square foot, the château stacks up favorably against ultraluxury homes in markets like Palm Beach, even after an estimated $2 million in renovations to update kitchens and bathrooms.

— Holden Walter-Warner