Château de Failloux

Château de Failloux in Jeuxey, France is an 18th-century seigneurial manor built under the French ancien régime for François-Léopold Masson. The site itself appears in records as early as 1445, but the standing house takes shape in the mid-1700s, when Masson, a lawyer and royal adviser who was ennobled in 1736, established the manor that gave the place its modern identity. The house became locally important both for its links to the newly ennobled owner and for events that tied it to national affairs, including the reception of royal family members and a military role during the 1870 war.

From first mention until the 1730s the property existed in earlier form, but the surviving main house is associated with the Masson family by a 1736 letter of the Duke of Lorraine that names “a manor house” among Masson’s holdings and records the erection of the fief of Failloux. François‑Léopold Masson built and occupied the house after his ennoblement. On 13 August 1761 he received Mesdames Adélaïde and Victoire, daughters of King Louis XV, when they passed through the region on their way to Épinal, marking the estate’s connection to the royal household.

The estate changed hands repeatedly in the later 18th century. After Masson’s death, the property was sold in 1767 and again over the following years. In 1772 Charles‑François‑Xavier Collinet de la Salle and his wife each acquired a half share of the fief, uniting Failloux with the seigneurial interests of Frémifontaine. The Collinet de la Salle family retained the house into the revolutionary era. During the French Revolution the family had to establish that the seigneur’s wife and a son had not emigrated in order to keep the fief with Charles‑François‑Xavier. A relative, Pierre‑Maurice Collinet de la Salle, was tried, condemned and executed in Paris on the same day as Charlotte Corday.

Charles‑François‑Xavier Collinet de la Salle died in the house on 21 November 1813. His children inherited, and after family arrangements Charles‑Marie became sole owner until his death, unmarried, on 1 June 1863 at the age of 89. After that death the fief was divided into three parcels: the main house, the Grande Failloux farm and the Petite Failloux farm.

The château’s defensive and logistical position became critical during the Franco‑Prussian War of 1870. Military authorities considered the property a strategic approach to Épinal and sent 250 national guards from Épinal to its defense. On 12 October 1870 the last combat for the defence of Épinal took place at Failloux. Testimony records that the sixth company advanced into the grounds, came under attack, held positions around the woods and the farm for several hours and suffered six men killed, eight wounded and twelve taken prisoner. The engagement lasted four hours, during which the prefect moved civil administration, railway equipment, a treasury estimated at four million and 400 wounded to safety. After the conflict the château remained under French control and the Vosges department did not become part of the German-controlled territory of Alsace-Lorraine.

In the 19th and 20th centuries the estate continued to change ownership. The orangery next to the house held rare exotic plants until 1919; following that year a retired officer returned from service overseas and converted the orangery into a temporary mother-of-pearl button workshop to supply military barracks. During the two world wars the house is associated with administrative and medical uses in the region. In 1914 the entrance gates were dismantled and hidden for fear of seizure. At the start of the 21st century the building underwent a complete restoration and was adapted for guest accommodation. New owners bought the property in March 2019 and the roof received a major repair in spring 2020, completing the third roof covering the building in as many centuries.