The workers were supposed to tear down a small building on the estate's grounds, but instead destroyed the entire 13,000-square-metre chateau, owned by a Russian businessman.

Dmitry Stroskin had tried for years to find the perfect home, and fell in love with the Chateau de Bellevue in Yvrac, France.

He told the Sud-Ouest newspaper he didn't know his dream home had been destroyed.

"I'm in shock," he said.

Locals have launched complaint over a breach of the town's building code, but Stroskin doesn't plan to pursue legal vengeance.

"The damage has been done," said Stroskin, who runs an import company in Poland.

Instead, he plans to build an identical chateau on the land.

But he'll have to wait. Yvrac Mayor Claude Carty has ordered all renovation in the area be stopped while officials carry out a full investigation.