Courances Castle

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Courances Castle, view from the south, 2014

The Courances Castle ( French Château de Courances ) in the French commune of the same name is a castle complex from the 17th century, which is best known for its park with water features , lawns and wooded areas. It was laid out in the 16th century under Cosme Clausse and was expanded and redesigned several times by subsequent lords of the castle. According to a written record from the 18th century, the name of the property comes from the numerous springs and small watercourses ( French eaux courantes ) on its property.

The castle is exemplary of the Louis-Treize architectural style , although it did not get its appearance until the 19th and 20th centuries. After the July Revolution of 1830, it stood empty for more than 40 years and gradually fell into disrepair before the native German Samuel Arthur von Haber acquired the property and had it restored according to plans by the architect Hippolyte Destailleur . His granddaughter Berthe de Ganay continued to rebuild and repair the facility together with her husband. The couple's descendants are still the owners today.

The entire property is classified as since June 27, 1983 Cultural Monument ( French monument historique classé ) under monument protection . The palace park has also been recognized as a Jardin remarquable ( German  remarkable garden ) since 2004 .

history

Beginnings in the Middle Ages

The Seigneurie Courances already existed in the Middle Ages . The first known member of a family of the same name was Jean de Courances, and there is evidence of a Henri de Courances, Marshal of France , for the 13th century . His family died out towards the end of the 14th century. In 1460, the Lapite family from Paris acquired the rule and sold it in 1552 with 1,500 hectares of land for 15,000  livres to Cosme (also Côme) de Clausse. The finance secretary of Henry II already owned the neighboring Fleury estate, including a newly built castle there . In Courances, he had the existing medieval lodgings completely rebuilt by the builder Gilles Le Breton . The small walled garden from the Middle Ages was also replaced by a spacious Renaissance garden in which water was a key design element. For example, Clausse had the so-called Great Canal ( French Grand Canal ) built, a very long and narrow basin , southwest of the castle . It was the second garden canal ever built in France. Only in Fleury was there an older one at that time. At Cosme's unexpected death in 1558, his two sons, who were still underage, inherited the property. The reign of Fleury fell to his older son, while his second-born Pierre received Courances in 1566 on the occasion of his marriage to Marie Le Picard. During his time as lord of the castle, King Heinrich IV. Visited the Seigneurie in 1606 with the Dauphin , who later became Louis XIII.

New building in the 17th century

Courances Castle, based on an engraving by Israël Henriet, ca.1650

Ludwig returned to Courances four more times: 1631, 1633, 1634 and 1636. However, at that time the property no longer belonged to the Clausse family, but to the Gallards, because Pierre Cosme's son François had no heirs and therefore sold the castle on the 13th. July 1622 for 124,000 livres to Claude I. Gallard, Seigneur of Poinville and Semonville. He had the old logis torn down and replaced from 1624 by a lock in the style of Louis-Treize. The work on this was finished in 1630. Claude I also began to expand the palace park by adding more water elements and emphasizing the property's line of sight. It is possible that the plans for this came from Jean Le Nôtre or his son André , but this is not certain. When the client died in 1636, his son Claude II took over the property and continued the work that had not yet been completed until 1643. An engraving by Israël Henriet from around 1650 has given us the appearance of the castle at that time: A three-storey, seven-axis corps de logis with plastered masonry stood on a rectangular island, and was surrounded by a pavilion of the same height at its west and south end . In front of the building there was a courtyard in the northeast , which was separated from the moat by a wall. Two-story pavilion buildings stood on its north and east corners. Madame de Sevigné found it in this condition when she visited the castle in May 1678.

Changing owners in the 18th century

Courances Castle on a 17th century painting

However, the lords of the castle had taken over financially with their extensions and embellishments. Their creditors had Courances seized and auctioned in 1677. The property remained in the family's possession, however, because the new owner was Galliot Gallard, the younger brother of Claude II. He was followed by his son François Galliot, whose heiress Anne Marguerite Catherine on December 11, 1708 Nicolas Potier de Novion, the first President of the Paris Parliament , married and brought him the property. When he died in 1720, their son André inherited the property, but Andrés mother continued to run the business. She decided to emphasize the central axis of the palace complex and expand it into a long visual axis. To this end, in 1750 she had a 225-meter-long mirror pond built southwest behind the palace building and laid down the wall and gate of the courtyard in front of the building in order to have an unobstructed view of the long access avenue . Her granddaughter Léontine-Philippine de Novion married Charles-Aymar de Nicolaÿ, President of the Chamber of Accounts, in 1772 and brought the castle to his family. Between 1775 and 1777, the couple had Courances modernized and changed, although they rarely stayed there. For example, the two replaced the then linden trees on the access avenue in 1782 with today's plane trees . The family emigrated to Italy during the French Revolution , but returned to France in 1793. Charles-Aymar de Nicolaÿ and his older son were arrested and executed in 1794. Courances Castle was confiscated and placed under administration. The younger son Théodore escaped the guillotine only because he was less than 16 years old at the time. Léontine-Philippine de Novion finally got Courances back in 1798 and bequeathed it to her son, who left France as a legitimist after the July Revolution in 1830 and went to Switzerland. He died there in 1871 without ever having returned to his homeland.

Reconstruction in the 19th and 20th centuries

Samuel von Haber had the castle rebuilt in 1872.

Théodore's heirs sold Courances to the Berlin-born banker Samuel von Haber. At the time, the property was in dire straits after more than 40 years of vacancy and neglect. The new owner and his son-in-law Octave de Béhague began extensive restoration and restoration work in October 1872. The two commissioned the architect Hippolyte Destailleur with the plans for this, and he was later also involved in the restoration of Vaux-le-Vicomte . According to his plans, a complex was created, as the builders imagined a French castle in the Louis-Treize style at the time: with richly decorated skylights, flame pots , ox eyes and a new cladding made of red bricks . Two large open staircases based on models in Fontainebleau were placed in front of the two longitudinal facades . In addition, a new wing of the building with living quarters for the lord of the castle was built to the northwest of the logis instead of a former service wing. A new pavilion was built on its western corner. Haber had new farm buildings built with horse stables, riding arena, coach house and an orangery apart from the main building . Its architecture was modeled on that of the Cour des Offices in Fontainebleau. The interior of the lodgings also underwent a comprehensive change. In the garden area, Haber decided to restore the large visual axis in the style of the 18th century, but the rest was landscaped . When he died, he left Courances to his eldest granddaughter Berthe, a daughter of Haber's only child Laura Fanny Sophie from his marriage to Octave de Béhague.

Berthe had married the Marquis Jean de Ganay in 1887 . Like her parents and grandfather, she and her husband organized large receptions, hunting parties and festivities at the castle. The guests included the English King Edward VII , Marcel Proust , Aristide Briand , Marie Bonaparte , Paul Valéry and Louise de Vilmorin . In addition, the couple restored the garden to its 18th century state. Old illustrations and plans served as a template. They were professionally supported by the landscape architect Henri Duchêne and his son Achille . The father worked in Courances from 1899 until his death in 1902, after which Achille Duchêne was involved in the reconstruction of the palace gardens until 1914. The old water basins were restored and the landscaped areas were replaced by new basins such as a horseshoe-shaped and a crescent-shaped basin and chestnut plantings in a Quinconce arrangement. The two baroque broderie - parterres on the castle island on the back of the building date back to Achille Duchêne. They were created in 1908 based on an old design by Antoine-Joseph Dezallier d'Argenville . Berthe de Ganay did not limit herself to restoring the old state, but developed the palace garden further by having a Japanese garden laid out. She revised this in the 1920s together with the English garden architect and student of Gertrude Jekyll , Kitty Lloyd Jones . Courances Castle had previously served as a military hospital throughout the First World War .

Post-war until today

During the Second World War , the entire system was badly damaged. From 1940 to 1944, 1,500 German Air Force personnel used the property as a base. When an ammunition depot was blown up when they were withdrawn, part of the castle grounds was devastated. Subsequent American soldiers used the farm buildings as a prison camp until 1946. During this time, almost all of the interior of the main building disappeared. The explosion of a second ammunition depot near the castle caused additional damage. After the Americans had left Courances, a third occupation followed: Marshal Bernard Montgomery stayed in the castle until 1955. Only then could the owners, Berthe's grandson Jean-Louis de Ganay and his wife Philippine de Noailles , dispose of their castle again. But that hadn't stopped them from gradually repairing the property , which was declared a registered cultural monument ( French Monument historique inscrit ) in 1948 , and remedying the damage and changes caused by the war. This included, for example, removing concrete structures in the garden, sowing new lawns and replanting trees and bushes. Lost arcades were replaced by box hedges . Philippine de Noailles was dedicated to restoring the decrepit Japanese garden. There was also a great need for repairs to the castle building. During its repairs, Jean-Louis de Ganay had additions and components from the restoration from the end of the 19th century removed and the old roof shape restored. But he left the brick facade of the building untouched because he assumed it was original. An architect had estimated the restoration costs after the end of the war at 88 million francs, of which the French state wanted to take over 7.7 million francs.

After the palace park was restored, it was opened to visitors. In 1982 the de Ganay family also made the castle accessible to visitors. The building and park can be visited on weekends and public holidays from April up to and including October. The 19th century farm buildings rebuilt under Samuel von Haber had to be demolished in 1978 after a fire in 1976. The property has been owned by Philippine de Noailles and her daughter Valentine since 2013. This reactivated an old 2.8 hectare kitchen garden of the castle and thus continued the tradition that every generation of owners contributes something to the design of the castle park.

description

Site plan of the palace complex

Les parterres de Cély ,
Les bois de Fleury,
Les eaux de Courances,
Sont trois merveilles en France.

   

The parterres of Cély,
The woods of Fleury,
The waters of Courances,
Are three wonders in France.

(Old rhyme, anonymous)

Castle park and garden

The property, which is around 42 kilometers south of Paris on the western edge of the Fontainebleau forest , includes 500  hectares of land. 75 hectares are taken up by the castle park, which is enclosed by a wall. The specialty of the park in Courances is the almost complete absence of flowers. The total of 17 water basins, canals and waterfalls on the area are fed by 14 springs and the École , which flows through the park to the west. No water pump is used, but the flow of water is guaranteed solely by a barely noticeable gradient and small cascades .

The defining design element is the approximately 1.5 kilometer long visual axis of the property, which runs from northeast to southwest. It begins with a 450-meter-long avenue that leads to the property's gate. Behind it, it continues in a straight line onto the Corps de Logis and is flanked on both sides by canals. Its long sides are lined with 140 plane trees that are more than 230 years old. The line of sight runs over a bridge to the main building and continues behind it over another bridge. This is followed by Moigny-Allee ( Allée de Moigny in French ), which was laid out by the Gallard family , is a long lawn that ends at a water basin known as the Moigny District ( Rond de Moigny in French ). This circular basin with a diameter of 53 meters is also the end point of the visual axis. Moigny-Allee has been redesigned several times in the course of history, so that today it is no longer just a lawn. The two canals that flanked it were filled in at the end of the 19th century; in its northeastern part, a long mirror pond was created as early as the 18th century, which is called mirror ( French miroir ). At its southwestern end, another water basin called Dauphin was added under Samuel von Haber . However, the planting on the edges of Moigny-Allee has not changed: it is bordered by dense forest areas that are criss-crossed by straight aisles. At the edge of the lawn at the transition to the forest, white stone statues stand at regular intervals on brick plinths with corner blocks.

While some elements of the park date back to the 16th century, the horseshoe basin southeast of the palace building is one of the more recent areas. It was laid out at the beginning of the 20th century under the landscape architect Achille Duchêne. The same applies to the crescent-shaped water basin, which is only separated from the horseshoe pool by a walkway. This is also called the Arethusa Fountain , after a statue erected there . The sculpture is known under the name The Bathers ( French La Baigneuse ) and was originally the work of the French sculptor Claude Poinier . He made the marble statue in 1711 for the gardens of the royal castle in Marly-le-Roi , and it was part of the Fontaine de la Nymphe there . However, the sculpture in Courances is only a modern cast, because the Louvre acquired the original and had it brought to its exhibition in Paris in 2005.

One of the oldest water elements in the castle park is the Great Canal, a 248  Toisen (486 meters) long water basin, which was created by the Clausse family in the 16th century. The only water basins in the park that are not perfectly level run towards it almost at right angles : the Nappes , three cascading, long rectangular pools. The stone figures on its edge may have been created by Italian artists who also worked at Fontainebleau Castle. The decagonal basin at the end of the Allée Catherine , known as a container ( French: Gerbe ), dates from the 17th century . It takes its name from a sevenfold fountain in its center, which no longer exists today, the rays of which resembled the shape of flowers in a bouquet. The pool has an impressive diameter of 78 meters.

To the northwest of the castle island is a large, rectangular pool of water called Salle dʼeau . It has its origins in the garden of the Clausse family from the 16th century. In the past, water poured from 14  gargoyles into the basin, which was filled in at the beginning of the 19th century. The sandstone gargoyles in the shape of grumpy dolphin heads were used in other water features in the park at that time. Her design is inspired by sculptures in the Parco dei Mostri near Bomarzo . The pool was rebuilt at the beginning of the 20th century according to the original plan. Another pool that already existed in the 16th century is what is now known as the Dôme . A stone walkway leads from its edge to a square platform in the middle. This is surrounded by a low wall and previously had a roof, so it served as a kind of pavilion. At the corners of the platform, which was restored in 2005, water flows into the pool from shell-shaped gargoyles. A long, very narrow water channel begins very close to the Dôme , which was christened Sous-bois . The surrounding vegetation forms the youngest part of Courances garden.

The sous-bois ends next to a building called the Foulerie . It takes its name from its earlier use as a fulling mill ( toe means fouler in French ). The hemp planted in the École Valley used to be milled there. Today the foulerie serves as a castle café. The building was used as a tea salon as early as the 1920s, as it offers a good view of the neighboring Japanese garden with its pond including an artificial island and a waterfall. Originally laid out at the beginning of the 20th century and revised in the 1920s, the majority of the planting it is today comes from a restoration in the 1950s. In addition to maples , bamboos and sweetgum trees , daffodils , tulips and hyacinths also grow in it . The Japanese garden is the only place on the palace grounds where flowers are planted.

  • Canal and row of plane trees at the castle entrance

  • View along the line of sight from the Dauphin over the mirror pond to the Logis

  • The Arethusa fountain with the nymph statue The Bathers

  • The cascade pools called Nappes

  • Part of the Japanese garden

Castle building

architecture

Entrance facade of the Logis

The castle stands on a square island, which is surrounded on all sides by a wide moat and separated from it by a baluster . A stone bridge leads over the moat to the Ehrenhof, on the north and east corners of which there are two one and a half-story pavilions with hipped roofs .

The Corps de Logis is exemplary of the sober Louis-treize architectural style : a combination of red brick and light, hewn limestone ( called brique-et-pierre in French ) that contrasts with the blue-gray of the slate-covered roofs. Sculpture jewelry is not available. The bel étage and another living area rise above a low, rusticated basement . The servants used to live and work in the basement . An elaborately designed outside staircase leads up to the main entrance from the courtyard. It is a scaled-down copy of the horseshoe staircase from the Cour de Cheval blanc of Fontainebleau Castle. The Corps de Logis is flanked by two equally high pavilions with hipped roofs, of which the northern one connects to a side wing from the late 19th century.

inside rooms

The interior of the castle can only be viewed as part of a guided tour. In the Logis, some of the former representative rooms are open to visitors. In the basement there is, for example, the trophy room ( French Salle des trophées ) with a renaissance fireplace made of white marble in the style of the second school of Fontainebleau . It may have been designed by Mathieu Jacquet , a sculptor in the service of King Henry IV. Its lintel is decorated with acanthus , bucranion and humpback shields borrowing from antiquity. From the rooms on the piano nobile, you can see the dining room with waxed walnut paneling and the billiard room with a billiard table owned by Marshal Montgomery . The Marble Salon ( French Salon de marbre ) is also open to visitors in the Logis. It takes its name from the colored marble cladding on its walls. The eye-catcher of the room is a large medallion made of white marble with the likeness of Louis XIV above the fireplace . The room is furnished in the style of Louis-quinze and des Régence . Its painted beam ceiling shows the letter H, an initial of Samuel von Haber.

Two more rooms that can be visited are located in the northwest wing of the former business section. In the monkey gallery ( French Galérie des singes ), set up as a library, hang three tapestries from the 16th century, from which the room takes its name. The wall hangings, presumably from Flanders , once belonged to Maximilien de Béthune, duc de Sully . In addition to his coat of arms, they show grotesquely scenes from the life of the high nobility , with people being represented by monkeys. The tapestries are thus a rare pastiche of courtly forms of life. The castle chapel in the adjacent corner pavilion can be reached from the monkey gallery . There it shows the year 1626 as a building by Claude I. Gallard. Its walls are covered with paneling from around 1760. In the area of ​​the altar she has carvings with religious motifs. Above the altar stands in an arched niche a Madonna from ivory . It comes from the Middle Ages and used to be painted in color, which is proven by minimal paint residues. The statue was found in 1880 in the ruins of the Templar Coming Beaudelu in Arbonne-la-Forêt .

Movie

  • Magical gardens. Courances. Documentary, France, 2015, 25:56 min., Written and directed: François Chayé, production: Bo Travail !, arte France, series: Magische Gärten (OT: Jardins d'ici et d'ailleurs ), first broadcast: April 5th 2016 at arte.

literature

  • France's most beautiful palaces and castles. Travel House Media, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-8342-8944-5 , pp. 10-11, 60-61.
  • Emmanuel Bourassin: Les châteaux dʼIle-de-France. Sélection du Reader's Digest, Paris 1994, ISBN 2-7098-0528-6 , pp. 54–57.
  • Thomas Christ: The castles of the Ile-de-France. Wiese, Basel 1994, ISBN 3-909164-18-8 , pp. 39-40.
  • Claude Frégnac: Merveilles des châteaux de lʼÎle-de-France. Hachette, Paris 1963, pp. 14-21.
  • Valentine de Ganay, Laurent Le Bon: Courances. Flammarion, Paris 2003, ISBN 2-08-011119-1 .
  • Catherine de Grodecki: Courances - Château. In: Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos (ed.): Le Guide du Patrimoine. Ile-de-France. Hachette, Paris 1992, ISBN 2-01-016811-9 , pp. 199-201.
  • Aude Guiheneuc, Rémy Toulous (ed.): Le Patrimoine des Communes de lʼEssonne. Volume 2. Flohic, Paris 2001, ISBN 2-84234-126-0 , pp. 713-715.
  • Georges Poisson: Ile-de-France castles around Paris. Prestel, Munich 1968, pp. 333-336.
  • Philippe Seydoux: Châteaux et Manoirs de la Brie. Éditions de la Morande, Paris 1991, ISBN 2-902091-23-0 , pp. 30-32.
  • Janine Soisson, Pierre Soisson: Versailles and the royal castles of the Ile-de-France. Minerva, Geneva 1983, ISBN 3-88059-211-X , pp. 94-95.
  • Bertrand du Vignaud: Monuments de France. Chêne, Paris 1991, ISBN 2-85108-694-4 , pp. 248-251.

Web links

Commons : Courances Castle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b France's most beautiful palaces and castles. 2012, p. 60.
  2. ↑ Entry of the property in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  3. ↑ Conseil national des parcs et jardins (ed.): Deuxième rapport d'activité. 2004, p. 26 ( PDF ; 234 kB).
  4. ↑ a b c Courances Castle Park on the Comité des Parcs et Jardins de France website , accessed April 11, 2018.
  5. ↑ a b c Thierry Mariage: Lʼunivers de Le Nostre. Mardaga, Brussels 1990, ISBN 2-87009-394-2 , p. 29 ( digitized version ).
  6. ↑ a b Information on the castle owners, on the property's website, accessed April 11, 2018.
  7. ↑ Jean-Pierre Hervet, Patrick Mérienne: Balades au bord de l'eau à Paris et en Ile-de-France. Ouest-France, Rennes 2003, ISBN 2-7373-3050-5 , p. 20.
  8. ↑ a b Castle history on chateauxetjardins.com , accessed on April 11, 2018.
  9. ↑ a b c Courances, un des plus beaux parcs de France. Press dossier from August 2003, p. 13 ( PDF ; 866 kB).
  10. ^ Courances, un des plus beaux parcs de France. Press dossier from August 2003, p. 7 ( PDF ; 866 kB).
  11. ↑ a b c d e f Paul-Robert Takacs: Courances. Le parc des eaux , accessed April 11, 2018.
  12. ^ Louis Moréri: Le grand dictionnaire historique. Volume 8. Libraires Associés, Paris 1759, p. 520 ( digitized version ).
  13. ^ Catherine Grodecki: Courances - Château. In: Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos (ed.): Le Guide du Patrimoine. Ile-de-France. Hachette, Paris 1992, ISBN 2-01-016811-9 , p. 201.
  14. ^ Courances, un des plus beaux parcs de France. Press dossier from August 2003, p. 8 ( PDF ; 866 kB).
  15. ^ A b Catherine Grodecki: Courances - Château. In: Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos (ed.): Le Guide du Patrimoine. Ile-de-France. Hachette, Paris 1992, ISBN 2-01-016811-9 , p. 200.
  16. ^ Courances, un des plus beaux parcs de France. Press dossier from August 2003, p. 14 ( PDF ; 866 kB).
  17. ^ Philippe Seydoux: Châteaux et Manoirs de la Brie. 1991, p. 31.
  18. ↑ France's most beautiful palaces and castles. 2012, p. 61.
  19. ^ Courances, un des plus beaux parcs de France. Press dossier from August 2003, p. 9 ( PDF ; 866 kB).
  20. ↑ a b Japanese garden information on property website , accessed April 11, 2018.
  21. ↑ a b c Information on the castle owners, on the property's website, accessed April 11, 2018.
  22. ↑ Information about the kitchen garden on the property's website , accessed April 11, 2018.
  23. ↑ Emmanuel Bourassin: Les châteaux d'Ile-de-France. 1st edition. Sélection du Reader's Digest, Paris 1994, ISBN 2-7098-0528-6 , p. 56.
  24. ↑ Information on the property on the castle website , accessed April 11, 2018.
  25. ^ A b Bertrand du Vignaud: Monuments de France. 1991, p. 249.
  26. ↑ a b c d Courances, un des plus beaux parcs de France. Press dossier from August 2003, p. 5 ( PDF ; 866 kB).
  27. ↑ a b Information according to the cadastral map available online at geoportail.gouv.fr
  28. ^ A b Thomas Christ: The castles of the Ile-de-France. 1994, p. 40.
  29. ^ Benjamin Jérôme: La "Nymphe" sʼenvole pour le Louvre. In: Le Parisien . Edition of September 20, 2005 ( online ).
  30. ↑ According to Catherine Grodecki: Courances - Château. In: Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos (ed.): Le Guide du Patrimoine. Ile-de-France. Hachette, Paris 1992, ISBN 2-01-016811-9 , p. 201. In many, even more recent, publications a length of 600 meters is incorrectly stated.
  31. ↑ Aude Guiheneuc, Rémy Toulous (ed.): Le Patrimoine des Communes de lʼEssonne. 2001, p. 715.
  32. ^ Courances, un des plus beaux parcs de France. Press dossier from August 2003, p. 4 ( PDF ; 866 kB).
  33. ^ Bertrand du Vignaud: Monuments de France. 1991, p. 250.
  34. ↑ Information on the dôme and sous-bois on the property's website , accessed April 11, 2018.
  35. ↑ France's most beautiful palaces and castles. 2012, p. 10.
  36. ↑ Emmanuel Bourassin: Les châteaux d'Ile-de-France. 1994, p. 57.
  37. ↑ a b c Aude Guiheneuc, Rémy Toulous (ed.): Le Patrimoine des Communes de lʼEssonne. 2001, p. 713.
  38. ^ Catherine Grodecki: Courances - Château. In: Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos (ed.): Le Guide du Patrimoine. Ile-de-France. Hachette, Paris 1992, ISBN 2-01-016811-9 , p. 199.
  39. ^ Philippe Seydoux: Châteaux et Manoirs de la Brie. 1991, p. 32.

Coordinates: 48 ° 26 '28.1 "  N , 2 ° 28' 8.3"  E

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on November 14, 2017 .