Olly Castle

Olly Castle is a manor house built around 1830, probably on the site of a former mill. It is nestled at the confluence of the Hatrelle and the Givonne rivers.
Its industrial past was shaped first by a brickworks, recorded as early as 1858, and above all by a spinning mill, the site's main activity. This textile industry was part of the broader dynamic of the Sedan region, renowned for its Point de Sedan carpets, and benefited from the water power of both rivers as well as the passage of the "Le Bouillonais" railway line. An electric turbine fed by a system of canals and ponds provided the energy needed for the workshops.
The castle is also a place steeped in history: it welcomed the Dutch ambulance unit during the Battle of Sedan in 1870, and was the scene of executions under the Occupation, most notably the murder of resistance fighter and gendarme Jacques Wenzel on 28 August 1944, commemorated by a memorial stone.
Industrial activities came to an end in the early twentieth century, between a devastating tornado in 1905 and a fire in 1908 that destroyed the spinning mill annexes, leaving around forty workers unemployed.
Acquired in 1961 by the painter Lucien Ardenne, and then in 2015 by Jérôme Counet and Jérôme Antoine, the castle is currently undergoing restoration.