Château de l'Ile - History of the Château

The Château de l'Ile down the centuries

Several châteaux were built at Ostwald. The first, constructed in 1226 was destroyed shortly afterwards. Of the two other 17th century buildings, the Château de l'Ile is the only one to survive, its conservation certainly due to the restoration work carried out in 1891 by the Heydt family.

In 1918, Jean Antoine Darbois purchased the château as his home. Later, his son René, who was devoted to alternative medicines, started his company, "Les thés du Château de l'île". Opposite the château, he built huge barns to store the plants required to make his herbal teas. However the bombardment in 1944 destroyed seven tons of raw materials, resulting in the decline and subsequent closure of the company at the end of the Sixties.

The château remained uninhabited and gradually became open to the wind and a meeting place for shady characters . until its purchase by the "Grandes Etapes Françaises" in 1991.