Le Vert-Bois Castle

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View of the castle from the southwest from the forecourt

The castle Le Vert-Bois ( French Château du Vert-Bois ) is a castle in the classicist Baroque style on the territory of the northern French city ​​of Bondues ( Nord department ) on the border with Belgium . It was built in 1743 by a member of the Prouvost industrial family in the style of a pleasure palace on the site of a previous complex from the 1660s.

The castle stands together with the gate building and two pavilions since December 17, 1962 as inscribed monument historique ( French Monument historique inscrit ) under monument protection . On April 8, 1987, two more pavilions were placed under protection. A large part of the castle park has also been protected as a natural monument since August 21, 1965 .

history

Beginnings and first castle

The first known lord of Vert-Bois was Roger Boutelin in 1389, whose descendants owned the land until 1576. In that year sold Hélène de Heulle possession of Guillaume DELIOT, lay judge in Lille . His daughter Jeanne married André de Fourmestraux in 1602 and brought Vert-Bois into the marriage. In 1610 André acquired the Seigneurie Wazières, which is why the couple's son, Jean-André, took the name de Wazières in 1662/1663. It is commonly believed that it was he who built the first castle on the grounds in the 1660s. However, there is no solid evidence to support this assumption.

Second lock

Jean-Andrés great-grandson André Joseph Druon de Wazières not only had the existing gate structure changed in 1743, but also built a new main building in the classicist Baroque style and bequeathed the new building to his younger brother Dominique-Joseph. After the death of Louis-Edmond de Wazières' in 1856 and his wife Élisa-Flavie Buffin in 1860, the property was divided between their two sons. The castle fell to the elder Gaston-Louis. He was only nine years old at the time, however, and so his guardian leased the complex and the associated land to Louis Duchochois. This ended in 1869 the lease in favor of his relative Eugène Devémy, who was married to Marguerite Duchochois. In the meantime, Gaston-Louis de Wazières had lost a lot of money in the gaming salons in Paris and had to sell the castle to his lender Devémy on April 19, 1876 in order to be able to pay off his immense debts.

Three years after the purchase, Devémy's daughter Marthe brought the castle to her husband Albert-Félix Prouvost in 1879 through marriage. His descendant Albert-Eugène had the palace repaired and modernized by the architect Jacques Regnault by 1945 . Work began on May 17, 1939. Stéphane Boudin was responsible for the new interior design. At the same time, the lord of the castle had the park of the complex redesigned by the landscape architect Russell Page .

After the end of World War II , the couple Albert and Anne Prouvost moved into the castle and used it as their residence. In the 1960s, the two opened the property to visitors, so that the palace park and main building can now be visited for a fee. As a proven art lover, in 1975 they set up a foundation to promote contemporary art. They organized temporary exhibitions and ran a gallery in the property's former farmyard, called Ferme des Marguerites .

Todays use

After Albert Prouvost's death in 1991, his son Ghislain took over the property. He had paths repaired in the park, water features installed and new trees planted. He was also responsible for a new interior design for the castle, for which the building had to be closed to the public from 1994 to 1996. Since it reopened, it can be viewed on guided tours.

The Ferme des Marguerites is now a craft village with more than 20 artists, craftsmen and traders as well as two restaurants. The orangery and areas of the park can also be rented for celebrations.

description

architecture

The concergerie

An approximately 340-meter-long driveway leads in a straight line from the southwest to the castle and at the same time forms one of the large visual axes of the castle area. At its westernmost point there is a two-winged lattice gate with brick, square pillars and spherical closures. It ends at the concergerie , a large, two-winged gate building, most of which dates from the second half of the 17th century. Its wings meet at an obtuse angle and are connected by a high, square gate tower . This formerly served as a dovecote and has a basket arched gate passage, the keystone of which shows the year 1743 and thus reminds of the revision of the gate and the new construction of the main building. The passage is flanked by two rusticated pillars that support a profiled cornice . A triangular gable with a sculpted coat of arms and foliage rests on this . The back of the building has arched arcades on the ground floor , which are now closed by masonry .

Behind the concergerie there is a kind of courtyard in the northeast with a few utility buildings , the orangery and two pavilions. These two brick buildings on the edge of the castle moat were built in 1751 and received a new facade made of light-colored stone in 1772 . The dates inside and in the gables above the entrances indicate this. The northern pavilion was most likely used as a chapel , as its gable shows a relief with the baptism of Jesus and a crucifixion scene. The southern pavilion is called Flora Pavilion ( French pavillon de Flore ) and may have served as a fruit room in the past.

Entrance facade of the castle

The main building of the complex is a two-storey rectangular building with a slate mansard roof , the ground floor being higher than the first floor. It is in the style of a typical pleasure palace ( French maison de plaisance ) and stands on the western corner of an island surrounded by a wide moat. The south-facing entrance facade is seven-axis , with the three central axes in a central risalit with a flat triangular gable. The windows of the risalit are surrounded by Tuscan columns . In the gable field there is a round window surrounded by festoons . The windows of the four outer axes are separated from each other by rusticated pilasters made of light-colored stone, while the fields in between are filled with red brick. The north facade facing the garden is designed in a similar manner, but has no risalit.

Directly behind the castle are two small square pavilions in the garden, called Chinese pavilions ( French pavillons chinois ). They were used as an ice house and garden pavilion until 1937 .

inside rooms

Inside, the visitor can see some boiseries in the style of Louis-quinze furniture from the 18th century and the large private art collection put together by the previous owners . These include Persian and pre-Columbian pottery , a large collection of paintings with contemporary paintings as well as paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries and Delft pottery . The mineral collection compiled by Albert and Anne Prouvost is no longer in the castle for security reasons. The special exhibits include, for example, a 3 × 4 meter Brussels tapestry from the 16th century with the allegorical representation "Triumph of Wisdom" and a painting by Andries van Eertvelt from the first half of the 17th century depicting a sea battle between Spanish and shows Turkish ships. Perhaps it depicts the naval battle of Lepanto . This is just one of many paintings from the 17th to 19th centuries with a maritime theme that hang in the drawing room , library and billiard room on the ground floor of the castle. More unusual and valuable exhibits are one of the cabinetmaker Charles Cressent -made splendor dresser in Regency style from the early 18th century and a document folder Napoleon Bonaparte in red leather.

Castle Park

Robbery of the Sabine women by Giovanni da Bologna in the palace gardens

Le Vert-Bois Castle is surrounded by a 60-  hectare park, about half of which is in the area of ​​the towns of Bondues and Marcq-en-Barœul . With its straight avenues and long aisles, it largely follows the design ideals of the Baroque , only part of the northern tip of the area is designed as a landscape garden. Two full-time gardeners take care of the maintenance of the area. About 42 hectares of the castle park are under nature protection . The tree species that grow there include the common linden , copper beech , pyramid poplars , norway maples and plane trees, as well as exotic species such as the black tupelo tree , Byzantine hazel , sweetgum tree , Japanese cord tree , tulip tree and paulownia .

Albert Prouvost and his wife Anne's interest in the visual arts is also evident in the park. There are several sculptures by well-known contemporary sculptors , including Les Tolmens by Jean-Claude Bresler (Herzi) and L'Humanité en Marche ( German  Humanity in Motion ) by Eugène Dodeigne, as well as a ram statue that once stood at the Prouvosts company building in Roubaix . Two bronze sculptures by the sculptor Giovanni da Bologna are also significant in terms of art history . The first of them is a statue of Neptune in the middle of a water basin. It dates from 1567 and is a replica of the statue in the Fountain of Neptune in Bologna . On the other hand, a bronze replica of the robbery of the Sabine women is another of Bologna's famous works in the palace gardens.

literature

  • Pierre Faucheux: Merveilles des châteaux des Flandres, d'Artois, de Picardie et du Hainaut. Hachette, Paris 1973, pp. 159-163.
  • Aude Guiheneuc, Rémy Toulouse (ed.): Le Patrimoine des Communes du Nord. Volume 2. Flohic, Paris 2001, ISBN 2-84234-119-8 , pp. 1190-1192.
  • Christiane Lesage: Bondues. Château du Vert-Bois. In: Jacques Thiébaut (ed.): Le Guide des châteaux de France. North. Hermé, Paris 1986, ISBN 2-86665-042-5 , pp. 28-29.
  • Philippe Seydoux: Châteaux de Flandre et du Hainaut-Cambrésis. Éditions de la Morande, Paris 1993, ISBN 2-902091-26-5 , pp. 88-90.

Web links

Commons : Le Vert-Bois Castle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ a b Entry of the castle in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French), accessed on October 12, 2019.
  2. ↑ Decree on protection by the French Ministry of Culture of August 21, 1965 ( PDF ; 1.7 MB)
  3. ↑ a b Pierre Faucheux: Merveilles des châteaux des Flandres, d'Artois, de Picardie et du Hainaut. 1973, p. 159.
  4. ↑ In the literature there are various details about the year of construction. It is mentioned as the year 1660 as well as the years 1666 and 1668.
  5. ^ A b Christiane Lesage: Bondues. Château du Vert-Bois. 1986, p. 28.
  6. ↑ a b Aude Guiheneuc, Rémy Toulouse (Ed.): Le Patrimoine des Communes du Nord. Volume 2, 2001, p. 1190.
  7. ↑ a b Pierre Faucheux: Merveilles des châteaux des Flandres, d'Artois, de Picardie et du Hainaut. 1973, p. 161.
  8. ↑ a b c Information about the Prouvost family on Thierry Prouvost's private website , accessed on October 12, 2019.
  9. ^ A b Philippe Seydoux: Châteaux de Flandre et du Hainaut-Cambrésis. 1993, p. 88.
  10. ↑ a b c F. V .: À Bondues, le château du Vert-Bois et son parc se visitent tous les week-ends cet été. In: La Voix du Nord. Edition of August 3, 2019 ( online ).
  11. ^ Homepage of the Fondation Septentrion , accessed on October 12, 2019.
  12. ↑ Information according to measurement on geoportail.gouv.fr
  13. ^ A b Christiane Lesage: Bondues. Château du Vert-Bois. 1986, p. 29.
  14. ^ A b Philippe Seydoux: Châteaux de Flandre et du Hainaut-Cambrésis. 1993, p. 89.
  15. ↑ a b Aude Guiheneuc, Rémy Toulouse (Ed.): Le Patrimoine des Communes du Nord. Volume 2, 2001, p. 1191.
  16. ↑ Aude Guiheneuc, Rémy Toulouse (ed.): Le Patrimoine des Communes du Nord. Volume 2, 2001, pp. 1191-1192.
  17. ↑ Presentation of the palace and palace gardens on the website of the City of Bondues , accessed on October 12, 2019.
  18. ↑ a b Information on the palace gardens on the Fondation Septentrion website , accessed on October 12, 2019.
  19. ↑ Information on the sculptures in the palace gardens on Fabrice Mrugala's website , accessed on October 12, 2019.

Coordinates: 50 ° 42 ′ 42.7 "  N , 3 ° 6 ′ 53.5"  E