The Journal
Château de Marnand: a restored 17th-century castle in the Broye region of Vaud
By Stones & Heritage · Published on · Updated on
In the Broye region of Vaud, a castle built in 1698 has regained its volumes, colours and gardens after five years of restoration. It joins the Stones & Heritage selection.
In the Broye region of Vaud, at Marnand, a castle built in 1698 has regained its volumes, colours and gardens after four years of restoration. To our eyes, it is one of those places where you can read the centuries in the walls: a fortified house, a Bernese château, an English boarding school, an Art Deco loggia. It joins the Stones & Heritage selection this month.
A castle built in 1698
The estate, which covers more than eight hectares, forms the core of a former lordship held by the de Loys family, who built a fortified house here in the 16th century. In 1698, Johannes Müller, bailiff of Moudon, acquired the lordship and built the present château against the north façade of that fortified house.
The architect is unknown. The plan is regular, the roof is Mansard-style and the windows are mullioned — an arrangement already out of fashion by the end of the 17th century.
The Bernese imprint
Around 1786, a descendant of Müller commissioned major works, attributed to the Bernese architect Carl Ahasver von Sinner. The 16th-century high house was demolished. The French garden was enlarged, two corner pavilions went up, the courtyard received its axial fountain and niche, a large farm building was erected, and a triple wrought-iron gate closed off the whole.
This late-18th-century state — volumes, colours, gardens — is what the restoration set out to recover.
From boarding school to restoration
From the 1840s, the château housed a boarding school for young English women. In the late 19th century a large dining room was added to the north; in 1924, the architect Louis Bosset built an Art Deco colonnaded loggia on the south side, later glazed. From 1939 to 2020, the estate belonged to the Christian association l'Ange de l'Éternel, which mainly added agricultural buildings.
In 2020, Luca and Ludmila Bizzozero took over the estate. The works lasted four years and covered the château and its outbuildings, with the support of Patrimoine suisse, Jean-Blaise Gardiol and the Monuments and Sites service of the canton of Vaud.
Staying at the château
You sleep in one of the rooms or apartments: the Studio Bleu, the Suite Empire, the Appartement Louis XVI, the Duplex de la Ferme, the Grand Appartement. Each room is thoughtfully designed: furniture, lighting and original artworks take their place within the historic spaces.
Food-and-wine pairing dinners, exhibitions and concerts punctuate the year. You sleep and dine under the same roof.
Book
Bookings are made directly with the owners, from the château's page on Stones & Heritage.
