Arnold de Ville
Baron Arnold de Ville (born May 15, 1653 in Huy , † February 22, 1722 in the Castle of Modave ) was a Walloon engineer.
biography
De Ville was born in the small Walloon town of Huy near Liège , the son of the rich master blacksmith Winand de Ville and his wife Catherine-Elisabeth de Lierneux. His father was elected mayor of Huy three times.
After studying law at the University of Leuven , he entered the service of the French King Louis XIV. In the vicinity of the royal palace of Versailles , he operated the Marly machine , built according to plans by the carpenter Rennequin Sualem , one between 1681 and 1684 on orders The water pumping station was built by the king and provided the castles of Marly-le-Roi and Versailles with the water required for the water features that were very popular in the 17th and 18th centuries, with the necessary pressure. Under the supervision of the lead carpenter Rennequin Sualem from Jemeppe-sur-Meuse and the engineer Jean de Siane du Pont from Namur , up to 1,800 people - many of them from de Villes, Sualems and de Siane du Pont's home in Wallonia - worked on the machine and its water channels and almost 3,000 more on the 620 meter long aqueduct of Louveciennes , which led the water into the 700,000 m³ storage basin.
The king appointed Baron de Ville as chief engineer of Marly's machine for life ( Gouverneur à vie de la Machine ), paid him a fee of 100,000 livres , granted him an additional annual bonus of 6,000 livres and an annual pension of the same amount .
De Ville lived from 1684 to 1708 in the "water pavilion " ( Pavillon des Eaux ) commissioned by the king , later Du Barry Castle on Chemin de la Machine , the road from Voisins to Louveciennes . From 1769 to 1793 the house was inhabited by Madame du Barry , Louis XV's mistress .
On January 14, 1686 Winand de Ville was awarded the hereditary title of imperial baron through an imperial diploma . As a result, Arnold de Ville became the feudal lord of large and small Modave and of Biesmerée. In 1692 he was also raised to the nobility by Louis XIV.
On April 22, 1708, Arnold de Ville married Anne-Barbe de Courcelle in Paris , daughter of the royal stable master and councilor Charles-Joseph de Courcelle and the lady-in-waiting Barbe Besser. His only daughter was born in Metz on May 25, 1713, and she would later marry the Duke of Montmorency .
De Ville died in Modave Castle on February 22nd, 1722 . His tomb made of colored marble can still be seen today in the castle church.
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| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ville, Arnold de |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Walloon engineer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 15, 1653 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Huy |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 22, 1722 |
| Place of death | Modave |