Écouen Castle
The castle Écouen ( French Château d'Écouen ) is a castle from the 16th century in the village of Écouen in the Val-d'Oise department . It houses the Musée national de la Renaissance .
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In February 1028 Bouchard I. de Montmorency received from Count Fulko III. Nerra of Anjou transferred the castles of Écouen and Marly . Instead of Montmorency Castle, Écouen Castle soon became the headquarters of the important noble family of Montmorency . The construction of today's castle, which is located on a hilltop, was started in 1538 by Anne de Montmorency , Connétable of France . For this purpose, the medieval fortification located there - one of more than 130 castles and palaces owned by Anne de Montmorency - was demolished.
The original plan from 1538 by an unknown architect called for a four-sided building with pavilions at each corner. In 1547, Montmorency commissioned Jean Bullant with the completion of the north wing and the construction of a portico in the south wing, which was to accommodate two sculptures by Michelangelo , the "dying slave" and the "rebel slave", which he had received from King Henry II .
In connection with the execution of Henri II. De Montmorency in 1632, King Louis XIII. the castle to give back to his half-sister Charlotte, Duchess of Angoulême . As a result, it came to the House of Bourbon-Condé , together with the Montmorency Castle Chantilly and many other family possessions .
The castle was confiscated during the French Revolution . The west wing was destroyed in 1797 and replaced by a flatter structure in 1807. The castle has been home to a training center for the Legion of Honor ( Maison d'education de la legion d'honneur ) since 1805 , for which Napoleon designated it.
National Museum of the Renaissance
André Malraux decided in the 1960s to house the Renaissance collections of the Hôtels de Cluny in the castle. The resulting Musée national de la Renaissance was opened in 1977. It mainly houses the jewelry collection donated by Baroness Rothschild in 1922, Ottoman ceramics, enamel work from Limoges , the Édouards de Beaumont weapons collection, the terracotta of the Masséot Abaquesne , tapestries (for example the David and Bathsheba cycle) and much more .
literature
- Alain Erlande-Brandenburg , Pierre Ennès, Julia Fritsch: Château d'Écouen. National Museum of the Renaissance. Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris 2000, ISBN 2-7118-4161-8 .
- Volker Hoffmann : The Castle of Écouen (= contributions to art history . Volume 5 ). Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-11-098447-7 (first edition: 1970).
- Charles Terrace: Le château d'Écouen. H. Laurens, 1915.
Web links
- Official website of the museum
- The Château d'Ecouen, the National Museum of the Renaissance - France's official website (German)
- Écouen Castle on richesheures.net
- Écouen Castle on montjoye.net
- Écouen Castle as a 3D model in SketchUp's 3D warehouse
Coordinates: 49 ° 1 ′ 3 " N , 2 ° 22 ′ 42" E