He Invented a False History... Now It's Abandoned

I have been trying to get inside this isolated castle for over seven years and finally we made it happen. We found the property completely open on all sides and were absolutely shocked by what we encountered inside. For multiple decades this place has been rotting away here with incredible furniture and antique pieces still standing, seemingly frozen in time. After going through endless piles of documents we pieced together the timeline of this place. The story actually starts almost a thousand years ago, beginning its life on the grounds of an ancient abbey. But in the late 19th century a wealthy liquor magnate reinvented the estate into his own fantasy castle. He commissioned secret spiral staircases, massive towers and theatrical fireplaces, building a stage where he could play the role of a lord. However the fantasy couldn't last. After the magnate died the castle passed through several owners who simply couldn't keep up with the extravagance. By the mid-20th century entire wings were closed off and even a revival attempt in the early 2000s failed because of the overwhelming structural costs. This is a castle with a soul, a place I've waited seven years to explore and I'm eager to share the story with all of you. Good morning everybody and welcome to the Bros of DK and today I am exploring alone and we are in northern France. Behind me this what you're seeing is a neo-gothic 18th century castle that used to belong to a french liquor tycoon. They called him the new lord in town when he came here in the 17th century. He built this place to show off his staggering wealth. Let's explore this one. It looks incredible here in the morning mist. I think it's almost eight in the morning right now and this is literally how I imagine one of these castles to look like. Let's take a little stroll around it. Back in the time in the year 1000 on the foundations here this used to be an abbey but for a long time it was nothing and farm barns until the liquor tycoon came and crafted it into the masterpiece we see today. I absolutely adore these protruding towers that we see here at the front of the place. They are a absolute masterpiece. When the people of town first saw this castle being constructed they called him the faux lord or the fake lord and they didn't want to have anything to do with it. They thought it was extravagant, too extravagant, too obnoxious and I get it because the town that we are in today is a extremely small place. Honestly looking at it it's one of the most interesting abandoned castles and architectural styles that I've seen in a long time. Especially these protruding towers which I was just pointing out. They're just fascinating how they come out almost the entire building and this must have been the entrance hall of the place. That's what we're going to see in a moment and I hope we can also discover a lot of history inside of this property and let's see if we can make our way inside of the property that hasn't been used in a long time. I don't know the exact abandonment that my friend Lien was exploring with me. There's also a small greenhouse here at the front. Shall we go inside? Okay we're gonna head inside of the property and explore it. I had this place on my map for around four to five years and I have been here multiple times checking out if it was open. But it has never been open and this is the first time in all those years that I'm stepping inside of this property. Okay let's look at the room that we have entered into. It's sort of a you know it is a dining room as you can see. Beautiful leather couches already standing here. But the thing I'm hoping for of course is to find out more about that liquor tycoon that used to live here. Beautiful buddhist statues already standing here. This looks like a sketch drawing on the wall. And these here should be cabinets filled with books. They should be. But as you can see a lot of the documentation has already been removed from this property. Unfortunately, let's close this up again. A dog statue and then one of my favorite churches in the world. Notre Dame. I think for a lot of people as well. French Revolution. I find this place quite special because it has a lot of woodwork. Very unusual. You can see the ceiling with its drawings in there and its woodwork and the fireplace. All elegant with woodwork and tile. It is a French architectural style that has been a little bit invented I think. When invented I mean not necessarily invented but styles taken from a lot of different places. Because a lot of people have called this castle a faux castle or a fake castle. And that's basically what the people in town also said about the neighbor or about the owner of this place. That he was a fake lord. And you see this a lot on France. They call these castles but they're actually not castles. They are not fortified. They don't have a defensive position. They don't have walls or moats. But they're just made to look like castles. And they're just very extravagant villas or manors in some way. And that's basically what this building is. But in French they have the name chateau which translates to castle in English. And that's why we always call them castles. They're basically just houses for rich people. With that being said let's go further. We do have a real painting hanging here. Possibly one of the forefathers of people that used to live here. And a couple more wonderful paintings down here. A statue. I know a stand for a statue of course. And it has a lot of horses on top of there now. Beautiful chandelier. I love this religious painting here. That is a beautiful piece. And let's also have a look at the china inside of this cabinet. That's real china. Bavaria, Germany. Beautiful gold-plated china. The owner of this place was quite wealthy but he didn't live here forever of course. In the 19th century the liquor tycoon already passed away. And that made space for further occupation. And after that it didn't really have a distinctive owner anymore. It more had a scattered ownership and a lot of abandonment in between. It was also used as a field hospital in the second world war. Because we are far north in France and that means that it's pretty close to D-Day. And to all the battles that happened here. Beautiful busts and also a big painting behind there. Very lovely. I love this chair as well. It's quite special. Okay let's not waste much more time in this room because there are way more incredible rooms. One of the most fascinating details we realized while exploring is that this castle is essentially a giant architectural lie. While the ground it stands on holds a history of almost a thousand years, the building you see today is actually a 19th century stage set. The liquor magnate who built this didn't just want a home. He wanted to manufacture a legacy. He hired a dramatic architect to erase the humble farm that stood here and replaced it with a fantasy. We found a massive stone fireplace inside depicting William the Conqueror. A piece added purely to make the family look ancient and noble, even though they had no connection to him. Every turret, every piece of gothic timber and the massive tower at the front were built to impress guests and create the illusion of power. It is ironic to stand here now and see that the man who tried to buy himself a permanent place in history with stone and mortar left behind a building that is slowly crumbling into the earth. I love the ceiling of this one as well and it's in a completely different style. And something that I've not seen in France before, putting wallpaper on ceilings. Like he didn't care what anybody thought about how he designed this castle. He just did his own mind. Wow that fireplace it is massive and so extravagant. Carvings all over it from top to bottom. A lovely tapestry here in the middle depicting a lovely garden. A woman fishing and a man sitting in between there. It has been lit recently. There's even a backplate in there with the crest of the castle, I guess. Beautiful crest. And again, we can see that tilework coming back. Lovely piece. It's that you're standing here. Oh, that's a clock. Damn, the entire mechanical piece in there is still intact. I think her face is funny. She's missing her teeth. And he even put like a little necklace. This one does have a name on it. It says Adré Dupart. That's maybe a name that we have to remember going further into this place. Oh, yep. Ah, I love these dolls. These porcelain dolls. They're worth a fortune. Yeah, we can see that there is already some decay happening in this place. A few renovations have been done to the property over the years. But unfortunately, it has not been much. And this results in the deterioration that we see today. Table and chairs around it. Beautiful upholstery chairs. That table is also quite insane. It's inlaid with mosaics, beautiful carvings, paintings on there. Wow, it's quite something with the cabinet. Massive painting here on the wall as well of the woodlands behind this place. And here it says another name. He definitely had taste for furniture and how to create a place that looked almost mythical. Okay, very lovely room. And that leads us to the hallway of the place which is also quite spectacular I would say. Beautifully designed. Especially at the end there you're gonna see the stairway. But here in the beginning there are a couple of blueprints and paintings on the wall. Oh, this might have been of the abbey that used to be here back in the 1100s. 900 years ago. That's definitely not this castle. This one has a moat around it. It's more of a fortified castle. Like a real castle as we would say it. And here we see some drawings of battles and wars. I absolutely love it. See the name on here? Jean Bermude. But before we go further with this hallway let's first... Before we go upstairs I want to say let's first show you the last part over here. Because there's a couple more rooms on the downstairs of this property that we have to show you. I do believe that over here to this side this is where the greenhouse starts. This is the entrance to the greenhouse. And you can see it has already been stuttered as well over here. This property is slowly falling apart. But yeah, I have to just take a few steps back and let you take in the beauty. We're seeing right here in the ceiling of this place. It's also quite dark in here. I hope it comes across on the camera the insane level of detail and carving. And these artworks is beyond fathomable. One thing that I absolutely just love is this bust that's crafted in here. Yeah it's made it's just made of wood. It's crazy. And then on the sides these mermaids hanging there. Absolutely crazy. So Henri Jacqueline, she was the architect of this place. And I just did a little history fact check again. And this actually wasn't immediately a castle. So it used to be a manor. And all the towers and the protrusions have been added on between 1895 and 1900. This ceiling does remind me a lot of Italian craftsmanship. But also Portuguese craftsmanship. And if you want to see those videos of Italian and Portuguese places. Definitely click the link up here. We have playlists for both of them. And we travel all around the world to explore these places. And to show you this beautiful architecture and history. Let's also have a deeper look at the fireplace here. You can see some blue tile on this one. And the style of the tile looks a bit medieval. It has that very finicky medieval look to the figures that have been drawn. Inside the fireplace is also a backplate that has a crown on it. And a crown normally is only reserved for people who have noble status. Or are affiliated with the royal house of France. And I don't think this liquor king or the people that came behind him. Was affiliated in any way with the French crown. Beautiful doorway over here. Oh, that's an incredible carving work. There's not even a door there. Oh, whoa! There's a whole new world behind here. With artifacts and everything. Even a roll of the wallpaper is still left in here. That's the wallpaper we're seeing here. And it's quite stuck. Quite sturdy. Oh, beautiful wallpaper. We even have a plate here above the door. And look at the carvings on this stairway here as well. I don't know what happened to this place. Look at it! It all just looks like it is piled up and ready for renovation. I mean, over here there's even a ladder standing. And there is equipment standing everywhere. I mean, these are brand new in the box. And they've never been used. So, they literally tried very hard to renovate this place. And multiple attempts have been made as you can see. But nobody actually succeeded in doing so. This is the kitchen of the place. Like some paintings over there as well. I mean, all the rooms are still beautiful. If you're in some rooms and look past all the trash and rubbish. That is a wonderful kitchenette over here. Very simple appliances down here. A lovely exhaustor above here. Oh, that's almost indistinguishable what's on that painting there. The plates above here are still neatly stacked kind of rooms. What do we have back here? Nothing much. And also a lot of decay in this room. I have this feeling that the outside of the property feels a lot bigger than what we are seeing here on the inside. The rooms are extravagant and beautifully made. But the square footage in the end feels a lot smaller. Like, this doesn't feel like the kitchen of a castle. It feels more like the kitchen of a manor. And that's probably because it has been repurposed back in the time. I am ready to start heading upstairs and see. Maybe there's a basement. Let's check that out first. And then we're gonna head upstairs and see the bedrooms of this place. I just noticed here on the wall that there are initials carved into here. And it says something like LCE. No, it's like DCLE. Something like that. I was wondering though if there were any basements underneath this property. But it seems like these doors, yeah, they lead to very disgusting toilets. Hmm, lovely coat hooks. I love cast iron in this place. Beautiful, beautiful stairway. Look at that beauty. The horns up there. The chandelier hanging underneath here. The twisting ironwork leading up. Also, the scale of this stairway is quite impressive. Stained glass windows, yeah. There's some mesh wire of cables here from the former alarm. Let's try to avoid that. And let's go up on this side. Damn, that looks beautiful. Bosconces here. Formerly, they were lit up with candles. They haven't electrified. Probably in the year of renovation, 1895. Also, a stained glass window up there. The building is falling into disrepair everywhere. There's a big patch of mold up here. Whole ceiling is breaking out. Let's see what we can find. Oh wow! I didn't see what this was yet. But this is actually the tower protrusion that we saw before on the outside of the place. The one that really comes out of the building. And here you can see it from the inside. I was already wondering how that would look like inside of the property. And yeah, here we come to a room at the end of the corridor. That is supposedly one of the dining rooms of the place. And this seems like the more formal dining room of this property. Really really nice room. Let's go around and let's see what we are working with here. Artifacts standing on top of here. I'm so bummed out that so far we haven't found any names or documents yet that indicate something from the former owners. It seems to have been all taken out and removed from this property. And this is all just cutlery. Yeah, it seems to have all been removed. This is also a very fascinating object here. So you put hot coals or something else burning in there and then you could put it at the end or underneath a bed sheet and you could heat up the bed before somebody came inside of it. Wonderful painting again. A fisherman toasting with some ladies on the dock. And this is a very large table as well. I don't know how many people lived here. And but yeah, it seems like some big gatherings would have happened here back in the time. The ceiling is bursting. Cracks are forming. Lovely marble white marble fireplace behind here. Sconces. Oh, I love that bellow as well. It has some cast iron work on there. Quite a beautiful one. Is there something behind here? Oh, I mean that's just a storage area. It's very difficult to get to. So, let's not do that this time around. Let's go further down here in the hallway now. And let's show you those other bedrooms. Oh, this does truly feel like a royal bedroom in here. Oh, I love these typical upholstery beds that we see over here. Wonderful upholstery around there. Around the headboard here. Still made. I find it so unfortunate that we cannot find anything about the former occupants of this place. BC it says over there. Probably again initials of the people. And these carvings and woodwork that we see over here also looks like something that's been added on in the late late 19th century. This is nothing antique. What kind of books do we have in here? I just noticed that I'm filming this place without light. What kind of books do we have in here? Selection, delivery, misery, knickknacks. Now we have a big medallion up here. This looks like a noble prize medallion. A whole cabinet full of books and plates and everything. Wow. On the walls here we have some flowers still left. Some flower pots. Of course, these are very fake. Definitely not real. Wow, that's a big shell. And it's made into a lamp. A night lamp of the house. Wow. Marble fireplace. Again a flower pot above there. How wonderful carvings. Yeah, that's beautiful. And then a massive massive mirror here on the wall. You can check yourself out in the morning. Check out that beautiful Bros of Decay merch before going out of the household. My hair still looks pretty nice I would say. I forgot to put gel on my hair in the morning. And then here a table. A teapot. Just relax and have some tea. Lovely, lovely room. I'm wondering who slept here. What do we have here to the side? Oh, aha, that's Lien. I think this used to be the boudoir of the place. Okay, lovely wall sconces. Okay, then from this room we can go out again and then to the right. This is again... Oh wow, look at this! This is the tower room. And it has the toilet down here inside of that tower that we saw on the outside of the place. Very fascinating. A picture of a fortified castle. That's a real castle everybody. That was what we are talking about. And then another lovely room over here. A bit of a smaller one. Still made bad again. Mosaic tiled painting on the wall. A lovely fireplace. Marvel fireplace. There's so many paintings in this place. It's crazy. I think this house has already been abandoned for roughly 30 to 40 years right now. Looking at the condition, the fact that there are no artifacts of the people left whatsoever anymore. More paintings down here. Small little washroom with a bidet and a sink. It's amazing. Okay, let's check out that last room here. On this lower floor. Here we have another lovely painting. Looks a bit more modern. Streaked lines. Oh yeah, they put an air cushion in between the wall and the wallpaper. Oh, this is the children's room. It's beautiful. Peeling wallpaper. Definitely a few children living in this place. With the praying chair down here. That's actually a quite nice praying chair. Beautiful upholstery on there. Wow. Two ladies in the chair. I love the setup here. Yeah, lovely little room. Let's have a look what's behind these doorways here. Oh, there's a mirror behind here. Yeah, wonderful. And behind this one. Ah, yes, another little washing area with a sink and a bidet. And a cabinet full of blankets and pillows. I love these doorways. Like, especially the style that is matched on the walls. The doorway literally blends into the room. And now, everybody, it's time to go to the last part of this castle. To the attic of the place. And, oh no, I'm missing a room over here to the left. I haven't seen this one yet. Yeah, it's this one over here. I just said this was the... Oh, I'm almost falling here. This was the boudoir, but this is another bedroom that I completely missed. Look at that. It basically looks like a hotel room. It is so sterile. There is no personality or anything like shoes or clothing or anything like that in this room. And that brings me back to the story, actually. Because I did read online that this property has been used as a hotel and B&B for quite some time after the 1980s. No, even earlier than that. And that makes for the fact that this room basically looks like a hotel room. Even the plastic sheeting here on top of the nightstand is very hotel room-like. I mean, I do see this place driving as a beautiful hotel in the region here. That could be a future for this place. I also see some spears lying up here. They're quite nice. And this one also has a fireplace and a mirror above there. And a lot of artifacts in this room. A little bit of molding though. Okay, we can go back out here to the hallway. Because this is the stairway that we saw before leading out from that completely wooden room with all the carvings. And it goes up further to the higher floors of this house. Hey, what do we have here? This is the first newspaper I'm seeing. And this says the 30th of October 2000. Okay, that's 25 years ago. But it probably has been abandoned a bit longer than that already. This could have been the servants quarters of the household. Yeah, very narrow spaces up here. Let's first have a little walk here to the left. Let's see these rooms. There's a stack of mattresses here. A stack of mattresses. Yeah, these are definitely the rooms for the workers. Oh, full of glass here on the floor for the workers and the staff of this property. Very long corridor leading all over the attic. Oh, it seems like electricity is also still functioning up here. Yeah. Oh yeah, you can basically look down here downstairs here. You can see the stairway from up here. What? Yeah, some hefty renovations are necessary in this property for sure. And most of these rooms up here are completely empty. These are a little bit more fancy, but they look more like dressing rooms. And maybe there is something behind here. No, there isn't. Okay, yeah. It's a very fascinating property that I've wanted to explore for a long, long time. For about four years, four or five years even. And finally did it. I saw and seen the inside of the castle and so did you all. So, if you enjoyed this, please like the video, subscribe to the channel, write a nice comment. It is a bit unfortunate that we didn't find any history about the owner, like inside the property. But I do think we had a fascinating exploration. And with that all said, I'll see you next week. Another episode. Bye.