Bry-sur-Marne castle

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Bry Castle before the First World War on a postcard

The castle Bry-sur-Marne ( French called Château de Bry and Château de Bry-sur-Marne ) is a castle in the heart of the northern French municipality of Bry-sur-Marne . Built around 1755, it now houses a private school of the Catholic Order of the Sisters of Saint Thomas de Villeneuve ( French Congrégation des Sœurs de Saint-Thomas de Villeneuve ).

history

At the end of the 17th century, between 1694 and 1696, Nicolas de Frémont bought the Bry country estate and had a new castle built on it between 1750 and 1760, today's Bry. In 1756/57 his brother Adrien Robert de Frémont d'Auneuil made plans for the design of the outdoor facilities. He paid particular attention to the lines of sight that ran towards the castle.

In 1760 it was made by Étienne de Silhouette , finance minister under Louis XV. , acquired. He commissioned the architect François Franque (1710–1793) to add another wing. After Silhouette's death, the property went to his nephew Clément de Laage, who was executed in the course of the Great Terror . The castle was confiscated as national property in 1794, but de Laage's son Philippe was allowed to buy it back in 1799. From 1803 to 1808 he rented it to Talleyrand , the foreign minister at the time.

In 1816, Philippe de Laage sold the castle to Baron Joseph-Dominique Louis, Minister of Finance several times under both Restorations and the July Monarchy . When he died in 1837, his considerable fortune was divided among his nephews and nieces, born of his sister Perpétue's marriage to Jean-François Gaultier Rigny. The Bry Castle fell to Geneviève Rigny Gaultier. After their death, the castle passed to the two daughters from the marriage of their younger brother Auguste Édouard Gaultier de Rigny with his niece Amélie Charlotte Elizabeth Bassompierre. They sold it to François Jules Devinck, chocolate maker and politician, in 1858. He divided the park.

The damaged Bry castle in 1870

The castle was badly damaged in a bombardment by French artillery on November 20, 1870. The trigger was that it served as a meeting place for Prussian officers. Only the foundation walls survived the detonations and the subsequent fire. After the war, the reconstruction began, during which the size of the side wings and the design of the facade changed. Only a few art treasures could be saved from destruction, including four stucco overlay portals with depictions of the four seasons from the 18th century, attributed to Johann-Heinrich Keller, a painter from The Hague. The large library of the Étienne de Silhouette, valued by Talleyrand, fell victim to the flames of 1870.

At the instigation of Eugène Robert, professor at the Albert de Mun University, the building became an institution for young people from 1903. On March 7, 1925, the castle was acquired by the order of the Sisters of St. Thomas von Villeneuve, who run a private Catholic school there and built a chapel on the front facade .

owner

  • from approx. 1760: Adrien Robert de Frémont d'Auneuil, Marquis de Charleval et Rosay
  • 1760–1767: Étienne de Silhouette , Minister of Finance (purchase)
  • 1767–1794: Clément de Laage de Bellefaye (heir)
  • 1794–1799: national property (confiscated)
  • 1799–1816: Clément François Philippe de Laage de Bellefaye (bought back)
  • 1816–1837: Joseph-Dominique Louis, Minister of Finance (purchase)
  • 1837–1857: Geneviève Gaulthier de Rigny (legacy)
  • 1857–1858: Amélie de La Cropte de Chantérac (1827–1902) and Noëmi Gaulthier de Rigny (1833–1887) (heir)
  • 1858–1877: François Jules Devinck, President of the Paris Commercial Court (purchase)
  • 1877–1879: Virginie Devinck, sister of the previous owner (heir)
  • 1879–1903: Joseph Favier, entrepreneur (purchase)
  • 1903–1925: Eugène Robert, Professor at the Albert-de-Mun University (purchase)
  • since 1925: Order of the Sisters of Saint Thomas de Villeneuve (purchase)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ École Saint-Thomas de Villeneuve , accessed October 7, 2015.
  2. ↑ a b History of bry.sur-Marne , accessed October 7, 2015.
  3. ↑ Entry of the castle in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  4. ↑ a b Information on the overhead portals on topic-topos.com ( Memento from March 20, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on October 7, 2015.

Coordinates: 48 ° 50 ′ 21.6 ″  N , 2 ° 31 ′ 18.6 ″  E