18th-Century Chateau Razed 'By Mistake'

Residents of a sleepy French village in Bordeaux have been left dumbfounded after discovering their local 18th-century chateau was completely bulldozed "by mistake." The mayor's office in Yvrac said today that workers who were hired to renovate the grand 140,000-sqaure-foot estate in November and raze a small building mixed up them up.

"The Chateau de Bellevue was Yvrac's pride and joy," a former owner says. "The whole village is in shock. How can this construction firm make such as mistake?" The chateau's current owner, Russian businessman Dmitry Stroskin, was away and returned home to discover his beloved chateau—which had boasted a grand hall that could seat some 200 people—was nothing but rubble. (More Chateau de Bellevue stories.)