Saint Point castle - Alphonse de Lamartine's house

Saint-Point, a 12th- and 14th-century castle, listed as a Historical Monument and a House of the Illustrious, became the family home of the poet and politician Alphonse de Lamartine in 1820.

Considered the father of Romanticism in literature, he was also one of the founders of the Second Republic and contributed to the abolition of slavery, the political death penalty, and the establishment of universal suffrage.

He received the Château de Saint-Point as an advance on his inheritance upon his marriage to an English aristocrat, Mary-Ann Birch, and undertook its restoration in the Anglo-Saxon Gothic style, which he had discovered during a trip to England. Lamartine added a tower, turret, portico, and balcony to the castle and laid out English-style gardens, forever imprinting this place with his distinctive taste.

A visit to the Château de Saint-Point includes Alphonse de Lamartine's bedroom and study, furnished as they were at the time, the kitchen, the 18th-century dining room, his private secretary's study, and the Lamartine Museum. Located in the grand salon on the ground floor, the museum houses the poet's personal belongings and mementos, preserved by his niece, Valentine de Cessiat.

Visitors can also explore the English garden, the orchard, the vegetable garden, the former greenhouse, and the poet's family vault, which he had built after his mother's death. It is situated on the edge of the château grounds, next to the Romanesque church of Saint-Point, which houses two paintings by Marianne de Lamartine.