Ferrières Castle

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Ferrières-en-Brie Castle
Front view of the lock

The Château de Ferrières in Ferrières-en-Brie in the 19th century from 1855 to 1859 by Baron James de Rothschild built as a family residence. Rothschild was one of the richest French of his time and was considered an important financier. In addition to the Ferrières Castle, he owned other castles and palaces , for example the Château Lafite , a city palace in Paris, the Boulogne Castle and a town house at 19 Rue Lafitte in Paris. Ferrières was the most expensive of his properties at around 18 million francs.

history

The ballroom

The area of ​​the "Domain Ferrières" extended to over 3000 hectares of forest and pasture land at the time of construction, which Baron James de Rothschild acquired from Joseph Fouché and then commissioned the English architect Joseph Paxton to build the castle. This happened after a visit to his cousin Amschel Mayer de Rothschild which also Paxton and George Henry Stokes planned Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire . The construction was a major project for the appreciation of the family fortune and was intended to become a permanent residence for the family. The castle had a good location in the suburbs of Paris .

Like the Rothschild Palais No. 15 in Frankfurt am Main , Mentmore Towers or the Maison de Rothschild in Pregny-Chambésy , Ferrières Castle is an example of the further development of historicism in the 19th century. Set pieces from different stylistic epochs like the Italian Renaissance , the French Louis-quatorze and the Louis-seize are used and added to form an eclectic unit. The English landscape park was the model for the large garden .

The castle is 65 by 65 meters and has towers at the four corners that were decorated with domes in the past . The castle's central heating, which was installed in the most important rooms, was already very modern. These rooms also had hot and cold water. The kitchen was housed in a building that stood a little apart and was connected to the castle by an underground railway.

In 1870, on the occasion of the siege of Paris, it became the headquarters of the Prussian king, von Bismarck and Moltke. Here, on September 19 and 20, 1870, Jules Favre met Otto von Bismarck and tried in vain to reach a peace treaty without the humiliating surrender of Paris. Around 1912 it belonged to Édouard Alphonse James de Rothschild . During the Second World War, the castle was again occupied by German troops, this time also looted. As a result, it was empty until 1959.

The last family to own the Ferrières Castle were Guy de Rothschild (1909-2007) and his second wife Marie-Hélène van Zuylen van Nyevelt (1927-1996). Guy de Rothschild, who spent his childhood on the family mansion, describes the castle where he grew up in detail in his memoir. When the Rothschilds decided to reopen it, Marie-Hélène took over the renovation of the castle and made it a place where the European nobility celebrated with musicians, artists, fashion designers and film stars at large soirées and lavish balls that were among the leaders Events in Paris society counted. Marie-Hélène regularly held balls and parties at the Ferrières Castle. On December 12, 1972, she organized the Surrealists - Ball with Salvador Dalí as guest of honor.

In 1975 Guy and Marie-Hélène de Rothschild donated the Château de Ferrières to the Chancellery of the Paris Universities, but they kept the house they had built in the surrounding woods. Guy de Rothschild was disappointed in his 1983 memoir that it had fallen into a "sad, dreamless sleep". In 2009 it was said that in view of the abundance of their real estate assets, which had grown through donations and bequests, but also in view of the high maintenance costs and low income, the university administration was considering the sale of the listed castle.

In October 2015, a private university for hotel and gastronomy management and luxury ("Ferrières ecole de l'excellence à la Française pur Hôtellerie Gastronomie et Luxe") was opened in the castle. The management is carried out by experienced specialists.

Location and visits

The Ferrières en Brie castle is at the gates of Paris, in the Île-de-France region and the Seine-et-Marne department , RER station: Bussy-Saint-Georges. It can be viewed in full in the basement. There are mostly exhibitions on the upper floor. Rooms can also be rented for receptions, parties and filming, for example.

Others

Ferrières Castle was used as the filming location for Roman Polański's mystery thriller The Nine Doors and an episode of the television series Relic Hunter - The Treasure Hunter .

literature

  • Guy de Rothschild: Money is not everything . Albrecht Knaus, Hamburg 1984, ISBN 3-8135-0309-7 , especially chapter 1.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Burglary at Baron Rothschild , Vorarlberger Wacht of February 22, 1912, p. 6
  2. ↑ The wild parties in the Rothschild house
  3. ↑ Lessons We Can Learn From The Rothschild Surrealist Ball
  4. ↑ Vincent Meylan: Point de Vue . No. 3151, December 2009.
  5. ↑ [1] Ferrieres-Paris (F): New College of Hospitality Management & luxury, accessed on 26 December 2015
  6. ↑ [2] Homepage of the Ferrières' School, accessed on December 26, 2015

Coordinates: 48 ° 49 ′ 11 "  N , 2 ° 42 ′ 43.5"  E