Bagatelle Castle (Abbeville)

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Bagatelle Castle, view from the west

The Bagatelle Castle ( French Château de Bagatelle ) is a small country castle in the south of the French city of Abbeville around 30 kilometers northwest of Amiens in Picardy . Erected by a wealthy cloth manufacturer in the 18th century, it was so famous that the French poet Michel-Jean Sedaine dedicated a long poem to it in 1770.

The castle building stands since May 18, 1926 as inscribed monument historique under monument protection . On November 26, 1946, the associated baroque garden and the English landscape garden were placed under protection .

history

View from the castle garden

Abraham van Robais, the rich owner of a cloth manufactory , was 1751-1754 in Faubourg build a small pavilion to be able to receive important business partners there Saint-Gilles. To this end, he had acquired two pieces of land on August 30, 1751 and January 28, 1753, to which he added a third piece of land on January 5, 1754, on which he had a garden pavilion built. At that time it was a very simple, single-storey country house with only four rooms. Abraham's son had an attic storey added to the building in 1763 , the flat roof of which was used as a terrace . This was closed off by a balustrade adorned with small statues . Shortly before the outbreak of the French Revolution , it was replaced by a mansard roof to make room for three additional bedrooms. The van Robais family left France during the revolutionary years and their little castle came to Pierre-François Rose (also spelled Roze) on March 26, 1793. Then it passed through several hands before Gabriel-Auguste Warnier de Wailly, who emigrated during the revolutionary years, acquired it on March 22, 1810. At the beginning of the 20th century, his grandson, the composer Paul de Wailly , had two low side wings added to the palace according to plans by the architect Louis Parent and the palace gardens and gardens restored in simple forms. Paul de Wailly held concerts and musical soirees in the castle with the most famous artists of his time, including César Franck , Camille Saint-Saëns and Vincent d'Indy .

During the Second World War , the building was hit by a shell in 1944 and badly damaged. Its roof structure burned down completely and the valuable holdings of the library were lost. The damage was so great that the building threatened to collapse. The then lord of the castle Jacques de Wailly had the property repaired after the end of the war and in 1963 received the first Prix ​​des chefs d'œuvre en péril , a national award for the rescue of endangered cultural monuments . In 1992 Henri and Brigitte de Wailly were awarded the Grand prix de la Demeuere Historique for the restoration of the palace facades that they carried out . In 1998 the de Wailly family sold the complex to the couple Patricia and Yannick Chagnon, who carried out further restorations on and in the castle and in the castle grounds. This included, for example, the renewal of all the roofs of the castle with shingles from Angers - slate and the fitting-out of the English landscape garden after plans of the landscape architect Antony Young. Bagatelle Castle and its garden are currently for sale for 1.6 million euros.

description

The castle got its name from the French word bagatelle ( German  small thing ), which used to mean playful magnificent buildings. The client's uncle is said to have said "This is nothing, this is a trifle!" ( French Ce n'est rien. C'est une bagatelle! ) The first time he saw the small building . The little chateau in Abbeville is considered to be the most refined of these residences in France.

architecture

Garden facade of the castle

The castle was built from brick and natural stone, what is called brique-et-pierre in France . Ange-Jacques Gabriel and Jacques-François Blondel are discussed as possible architects , although Blondel is more likely, because he is known to have worked in the east and north of France, especially in Cambrai and Valenciennes , in the period in question . Ultimately, however, there is no document that could prove its authorship to Bagatelle. The core of the palace is a 20-meter-long, rectangular central building with two floors. It is joined to the north and south by low side wings from the 19th century, closed off by pavilions. The central block are on its longitudinal sides Mittelrisalite purposed of which is Western on three sides, while the eastern a semi-circular shape. The interaction of this risalite with the windows results in a division into 4-3-4 axes.

The castle has a rich facade decoration, which is more lush on the garden side and in many ways is a metaphorical allusion to the profession of its builder. The corners of the central projections are embossed and form a kind of pilasters that are crowned with snapdragons at the height of the attic floor. Above the windows on the ground floor there are festoons made of oak leaves, while the 14  ox eyes of the attic are embedded in a rectangular stone slab and surrounded by draped cloths.

inside rooms

Much of the interior is still original, for example the paneling decorated with carvings from the time of Louis XV. and thus from the time the castle was built. The interior decoration may have been designed by Jean-Baptiste Perronneau , Jean-Baptiste Huet or Jean-Baptiste Pillement .

The central building has a total living area of ​​950 m². There are four rooms on its ground floor. The semicircular central risalit on the garden side belongs to the summer salon ( French salon d'été ), which is also known as the round salon ( French salon rond ) because of its approximately 5 × 6 meters, elliptical floor plan . Its interior is in tones of turquoise . The painting of the paneling in the form of vases with flower arrangements and arabesques comes from a later redesign of the room in the Louis-seize style and was probably applied by Italian artists. The then lady of the castle Anna Elisabeth Emilie van Robais decided to revise it after returning from a stay in Paris in 1784 at the invitation of Marie Antoinette . The over- portals of the summer salon remained unchanged. The ceiling painting depicts an American eagle , which is supposed to commemorate Anna Elisabeth Emilie's husband, Johann von Kalb . He died in 1780 in the American Revolutionary War at the Battle of Camden . At the side of the summer salon are the so-called winter salon ( French salon d'hiver ) and a dining room. The winter salon , decorated in shades of blue, has a ceiling that is painted to imitate a sky. A hidden door in the wall paneling leads to today's library in the north wing of the castle. In the southern dining room, the light green tones of the Veronese green dominate . A crockery showcase is integrated into the paneling of one wall.

The western central projection of the castle belongs to a vestibule , from which a two-flight staircase leads to the first floor. The filigree wrought iron banister was made by local craftsmen. On the upper floor there are two small apartments called appartement du maître and appartement de la chambre bleue . The latter takes its name from a blue and white Toile-de-Jouy in the bedroom, which was introduced there by English tenants in 1865. Both suites are equipped with paneling in the style of Louis-seize. The south wing of the castle has now been redesigned into an apartment with a floor area of ​​185 m².

Garden and park

Part of the palace garden

In front of the western entrance facade is an oval boulingrin with the statues of two fauns . To the east of the palace is a baroque garden that is bordered by linden trees . Every seven years these trees are cut to the height of the castle cornice in order to maintain the proportions of the planting to the building. The baroque garden is surrounded by a ten hectare English landscape garden that was laid out in the 19th century. There are many old and rare plants in it, including an approximately 250 year old horse chestnut , an approximately 100 year old colchian pimpernut and various trees around 150 years old such as French maple , common ash and a Harlequin beech .

literature

  • Pierre Faucheux: Merveilles des châteaux des Flandres, d'Artois, de Picardie et du Hainaut. Hachette, Paris 1973, pp. 24-29.
  • Bernard de Montgolfier: Dictionnaire des châteaux de France. Larousse, Paris 1969, p. 39.
  • Louis Grenier: Château de Bagatelle. Abbeville, Somme, France. Paillart, Abbeville 1994, ISBN 2-902091-27-3 .
  • Josiane Sartre: Châteaux "brique et pierre" in Picardy. Nouvelles Éditions Latines , Paris 1973, pp. 106-108.
  • Robert Schezen, Laure Murat: Castles and country manors in France. Heyne, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-453-05185-8 , pp. 42, 45.
  • Éveline Schlumberger: Le sort plaisant d'une Bagatelle Louis XV. In: Connaissance des arts. Vol. 10, No. 113, July 1961, ISSN  0293-9274 , pp. 56-61.
  • Jacques Thiébaut (Ed.): Dictionnaire des châteaux de France. Volume 4: Artois, Flandres, Hainaut, Picardie; Nord, Pas-de-Calais, Somme, Aisne. Berger-Levrault, Paris 1978, ISBN 2-7013-0220-X , pp. 31-32.
  • Château de Bagatelle, Abbeville. Les jardins de bagatelle. o. O., o. J. (information brochure about the castle park).

Web links

Commons : Schloss Bagatelle  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Entry of the castle in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  2. ^ Josiane Sartre: Châteaux "brique et pierre" in Picardy. 1973, p. 106.
  3. ↑ a b c d e Jacques Thiébaut: Dictionnaire des châteaux de France. Volume 4. 1978, p. 31.
  4. ↑ a b c d e Josiane Sartre: Châteaux "brique et pierre" in Picardie. 1973, p. 107.
  5. ↑ a b c d e Bagatelle Palace on the website of the Institut national de l'audiovisuel , accessed on January 4, 2020.
  6. ↑ Information about the castle on jedecouvrelafrance.com ( Memento from May 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive ).
  7. ↑ a b c d e f Jean Rafferty: An elegant look at yesteryear. In: The New York Times . Online edition of May 29, 2008 ( online ).
  8. ↑ Website of the real estate agent ( Memento from April 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Information about the castle on the Abbeville Municipality website , accessed January 4, 2020.
  10. ↑ Robert Schezen, Laure Murat: castles and country estates in France. 1991, p. 42.
  11. ↑ Robert Schezen, Laure Murat: castles and country estates in France. 1991, p. 45.
  12. ↑ a b Jacques Thiébaut: Dictionnaire des châteaux de France. Volume 4. 1978, p. 32.
  13. ↑ Château de Bagatelle, Abbeville. Les jardins de bagatelle. undated, undated

Coordinates: 50 ° 5 ′ 41.8 "  N , 1 ° 50 ′ 36"  E