Empress Eugénie and the Fairytale Château de Pierrefonds

Published: June 24, 2026 by France Today Editors

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Empress Eugénie and the Fairytale Château de Pierrefonds

Two centuries after her birth, Empress Eugénie is celebrated at the Château de Pierrefonds, the fairy-tale castle she called home

She was born in Granada, died in Madrid and reigned from Paris – yet it was a turreted neo-Gothic castle in the forests of Picardy that Empress Eugénie chose as her legacy. This year, on the 200th anniversary of her birth, the Château de Pierrefonds is returning the compliment with an ambitious cultural season dedicated to her.

Born on May 5, 1826 to a Spanish-Scottish noble family, Eugénie was already one of the most celebrated beauties in Europe when Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte set his sights on her in the early 1850s. They married in January 1853, making her Empress of the French at the age of 26. She served as regent of France on three occasions, championed women’s education, was a committed patron of women artists and presided over a court that was the cultural envy of Europe. Her connection to Pierrefonds castle began in 1857, when Napoleon III commissioned the visionary architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc to restore a medieval fortress that had lain in ruins since Louis XIII ordered its dismantling two centuries earlier.

The result was one of the great architectural realisations of the 19th century: a neo-Gothic masterpiece that blended medieval heritage with romantic imagination.

Empress Eugénie in 1856

Eugénie was closely associated with the project (she allegedly pushed for the imperial couple to move to Pierrefonds), and she chose the newly erected towers to house her personal apartments. During the grand Séries de Compiègne – legendary week-long house parties that gathered European high society at the nearby imperial palace – a visit to Pierrefonds was always on the programme. A little cottage, called Le Pavillon Eugénie, nestled in the forest between Compiègne and Pierrefonds provided a welcome rest for revellers travelling between the two châteaux and those attending royal hunting parties.

The fall of the empire in 1870, Napoleon III’s death in exile in 1873, and the devastating loss of her son in 1879 left Eugénie adrift from everything she had known. She lived on until 1920, dying at 94, holding on to the self-bestowed title Comtesse de Pierrefonds until the very end.

HOMAGE TO EUGÉNIE

The 2026 commemorative season, which runs from May 5 to November 15, opens on the bicentenary of her birth with a moment of historic signifi cance: the opening of the Empress’s private apartments – including her bedroom – to the public, accompanied by the return of offi cial portraits of the imperial couple. A rich programme of themed guided visits explores three aspects of Eugénie that history has often overlooked: her passion for botany (‘Eugénie, un amour pour les fl eurs’, April – June), her life at Pierrefonds seen through her own eyes (‘Eugénie en son château!’, July – September), and her genuine fascination with the occult and spiritism (‘Eugénie et les sciences occultes’, October – December). The highlight of the season is the Week-end Impérial on June 27–28, when the castle will host military bivouacs, theatrical vignettes, croquet on the lawns, and, on the Saturday evening, the Bal de l’Impératrice, a full-dress imperial ball complete with quadrilles, waltzes, polkas and a champagne bar in the Cour d’Honneur. Pack your period dress (tickets €30). In September, don’t miss the chance to explore otherwise closed-off sections of the castle during the European Heritage Days on September 19–20. Halloween brings a late-night spiritism experience with theatre company Au bord des mondes, and the year closes with a Nutcracker-themed Christmas installation from late November.