Welcome to Canon Castle

The seigneury of Canon, owned by Eudes de Canon in the Middle Ages, passed through a series of alliances and inheritances. In 1727, the Protestant Robert de Bérenger fled the regime and sought refuge in England, selling Canon at a pittance to a certain Sieur de la Rocque, who then built a new residence. Jean-Baptiste Elie de Beaumont, a renowned defender of the Protestant cause, married Anne-Louise Morin du Mesnil, the sole heiress of the de Bérenger family, in 1760. As a lawyer, he took an interest in the questionable circumstances surrounding the sale of Canon in 1727. After a lengthy legal battle, closely followed by his friend Voltaire, he won the case and immediately undertook extensive renovations (removing the mansard roof, adding a new floor, etc.). He commissioned a variety of trees from the Harcourt nurseries to adorn the park, seeking contrasting colors for every season. He himself designed the plans for the "Chartreuses," thirteen walled gardens connected by a series of openings. Finally, in 1775, he and his wife created the famous "Fête des Bonnes Gens" (Festival of Good People), a grand celebration of Virtue, during which the Good Mother, the Good Old Man, the Good Head of the Family, and the Rose Queen were crowned, elected by universal suffrage from among the inhabitants of Canon, Mézidon, and Vieux-Fumé. Many mementos of this festival, which drew thousands of people each year, are preserved in the castle's reception rooms. A significant portion of the outbuildings was dedicated to this event, with the construction of a large theater known as the "Salle des Rosières" (Rose Queen Hall). In 1783, Anne-Louise Elie de Beaumont died, leaving her husband heartbroken. From then on, he rarely visited Canon and hastened the completion of the works, which he was finding increasingly difficult to finance. After writing "Canon is a cancer that is eating me away," he died heavily in debt in 1786, leaving a 13-year-old son, Armand, whose guardian was the renowned lawyer Target. Highly regarded in the region, J.B. Elie de Beaumont spared the Canon estate from the turmoil of the Revolution. Canon suffered greatly during the Second World War, which saw a German hospital established within the château itself in June 1944, followed by troops from a Panzer tank division, whose two-hundred-year-old trees effectively shielded them from Allied aircraft. As part of war reparations, the Beaux-Arts (the French Ministry of Fine Arts) meticulously rebuilt the North Farm, which had been damaged by an American bomb, but the same could not be said for the other outbuildings, which have required annual restoration ever since. The park was then gradually restored to its original splendor. While maintaining such an estate was already a considerable undertaking, the park was ravaged by several storms, notably the hurricane of 1999. Today, all the pathways have been completely replanted, thanks to the assistance of the French Heritage Society, and the park has regained its tranquility and beauty. Canon has remained in the same family since its creation. To manage the complexities of such an estate, the family formed a real estate company in 1999. A highly original participatory family management system was then implemented, with each member required to contribute a minimum of 150 hours of work per year to the company.