A twentieth century dedicated to books

1945. During the war, the Domaine des Fontaines was requisitioned by the German army for use as a communications center. The 52-hectare park still bears witness to this troubled period: an observation bunker, now condemned.

A cultural and spiritual center

1946, the war is over. Henri de Rothschild, owner of the estate, put it up for sale. It was bought by the Jesuits, a Catholic religious order, for use as an educational center. The site is home to around a hundred students, as well as some thirty professors and researchers. Above all, it housed a phenomenal library of over 500,000 books, one of the largest private libraries in Europe at the time. The site also welcomed many young people on vacation and was open to the public, who enjoyed a pleasant stroll around the grounds.
In the '80s, following the transfer of the training center to Paris, les Fontaines diversified its activities: the site became a cultural center open to the public, and numerous partnerships with the fledgling University of Amiens were formed. It also began to host a number of corporate seminars...

Towards a new chapter

But as the years went by, the site, ill-suited to the demands of a particularly foreign clientele, required investments that were difficult to make profitable. The Jesuit community began to think about handing over the reins. In 1998, the Capgemini group acquired the estate, opening a new page in the history of Les Fontaines. The immense library was transferred to Lyon, and the transformation work could begin.