The 19th century
A new lease of life for Château Cirey
The Countess of Simiane, the other great lady of Cirey
Diane Adélaïde de Damas was born in 1761. At only sixteen years old, she married the Count of Simiane in 1777. This marriage was short-lived: her husband took his own life in 1787, leaving her a widow at twenty-six.
During the French Revolution, Adélaïde was imprisoned. However, she escaped the guillotine, unlike her uncle and aunt, the Duke and Duchess of Châtelet. Having no children, they had designated her as the heir to the Château de Cirey.
Deeply attached to this house, she returned to Cirey after the Revolution. The estate having been declared national property, she then embarked on a long administrative battle to recover the unsold assets. For those that had already been sold, she was forced to negotiate with the various buyers.
Through remarkable perseverance, she gradually managed to rebuild the entire property, after fifty-four auctions. She then undertook to restore, decorate and furnish the castle, which she had found completely stripped.
Once the estate was reunited, she paid particular attention to the gardens. She maintained them, developed them, and created a picturesque garden along the canal, making a lasting contribution to the harmony of the site.
Known for her great beauty as well as her kindness, Diane Adélaïde de Damas, Countess of Simiane, died in Cirey in 1835, leaving the image of a determined woman deeply connected to the history of the castle.
The Marquis de Lafayette, guest of Cirey
In the early 1780s, Adélaïde de Simiane became the mistress of the Marquis de Lafayette. This relationship is recounted by Madame Vigée-Lebrun, a renowned portrait painter of her time, who mentions in her diary a visit from the young general to Adélaïde while she was painting his portrait. She speaks of the one "whom, it was said, he took care of."
In an exceptional move for the time, Adrienne de La Fayette, the Marquis's wife, displayed uncommon tolerance. She allowed her husband to spend a summer month with his mistress in Cirey and even invited her children to call Madame de Simiane "our aunt".
The great works of the Damascus family
Upon the death of the Countess of Simiane in 1835, the Château de Cirey passed to her nephew, Charles de Damas. In 1845, he married Marie-Césarine de Beaujolin. The couple quickly undertook significant renovations and modernizations of the estate, profoundly altering the château's appearance in the 19th century.
The south wing was remodeled to house their apartments. The theater was restored in the attic, while an older wing was demolished in 1846 to make way for a monumental chapel, built by the architect Joseph-Antoine Froelicher. Richly decorated with murals by Joseph Constant Méniçier, this chapel testifies to the Damas family's artistic and spiritual ambition. The renovations also included the creation of a library.
The work also extended to the outbuildings: construction of new stables, creation of agricultural buildings, and construction of houses at the entrance to the property. A large terrace was built in front of the castle, emphasizing its monumental character.
The park was also the subject of a major landscaping project. In 1860, Marie-Césarine de Beaujolin commissioned the landscape architect Paul Lavenne, Count of Choulot, a leading figure in 19th-century garden design. He redesigned the park to incorporate the Blaise valley floor, added follies, transformed the Garenne house into a Swiss chalet, and built a metal footbridge over the canal. The sheer scale of the investment testifies to the importance of this undertaking.
These ambitious transformations, however, placed a heavy burden on the family finances. After the death of his brother Roger in 1880, Henri de Damas, Charles's second son, inherited the estate. Unable to bear the financial responsibility, he was forced to sell the château in 1892 to Armand Viellard, a prominent industrialist from eastern France, thus ending the Damas family's presence in Cirey.
