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Château Perrier

In 1811 cork-manufacturer Pierre-Nicolas Perrier married Adèle Jouët and founded what was to become the celebrated House of Perrier-Jouët. In 1854 they commissioned the building of this Louis Treize style chateau.

Château Perrier now forms part of the Champagne Hillsides, Houses and Cellars included on the UNESCO World Heritage List.


The chateau was built by Epernay architect Pierre-Eugène Cordier but designed by the couple themselves in the Louis Treize style so dear to their hearts. It originally served as the Perrier private family home and stands today as a magnificent example of Late Romantic Era French architecture.

In World War II the chateau served as Army Headquarters, first for the British Army (1940), then for the Germans (1942-1944) then for the Americans in 1945. It was then converted into the Epernay Municipal Library and Museum, making an important contribution to the magnificent built heritage of the "Champagne Avenue".

Since 1950 the chateau has also housed the regional museum of prehistory and archaeology, based on a major donation of artworks and archaeological artifacts to the town of Epernay in 1893. Some 40 years later eminent French archaeologist, Abbé Pierre Favret, was appointed as the director and curator of the collection — one of the most important archaeological exhibitions in France comprising some 80,000 regional artifacts (dating from the Paleolithic to the Early Middle Period) together with (since 1960) 4,000 artifacts and documents relating to the history of Champagne wine.

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