Les Aygues Castle

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Les Aygues Castle

The castle Les Aygues ( French Château Les Aygues ) was built during the 19th century in the Louis-Treize style and served its residents as a representative summer residence by the sea. The castle is located in the French seaside resort Étretat in the Seine-Maritime department in Normandy and can be visited as part of a guided tour. Since August 1997, parts of the building, which is located on the historic Ivory and Spice Route, have been inscribed on the French list of monuments as Monument historique .

history

Detail view

Amédée Boyer, the wealthy owner of a company that produced the Carmelite spirit, had the castle-like villa built as a summer retreat by the French architect Théodore Huchon in 1866 . The symmetrical building corresponded to the taste of the time of the Second Empire under Emperor Napoleon III. Jean-Charles Alphand and Gabriel Davioud , the creator of the Paris Parc des Buttes-Chaumont , designed the corresponding, one hectare large castle park with many different species of trees, a greenhouse, an ice house and a garden pavilion . The Boyers heiress Angélique de la Houssaye and her husband, the Grand Chamberlain of the Russian Emperor Nicholas I , Prince Joseph Lubomirski from the Polish noble family Lubomirski , took over the castle. Later it was used as the holiday residence of the Spanish queens Maria Christina of Naples-Sicily and Isabella II of Spain . Jacques Offenbach and Alexandre Dumas were among the most famous guests of the palace .

Todays use

After more than twenty years of vacancy, the historic building was purchased by two history buffs in 1989. A comprehensive restoration of the castle was then carried out and its furnishings, authentic furniture, portraits and works of art from the 18th and 19th centuries. In addition, the building houses a Chinese ceramic and porcelain collection. A suite and a room in the castle can now be rented for overnight stays.

literature

  • Sophie-Dorothée Delesalle, Christian Olles, Muriel Vandeventer (eds.): Le Patrimoine des Communes de la Seine-Maritime. Volume 1. Flohic, Paris 1997, ISBN 2-84234-017-5 , p. 307.
  • Vanessa Yager (Ed.): Ouverts au public. Monuments historiques: chateaux et abbayes, parcs et jardins, sites industriels et archéologiques édifices du XXe siècle. Le guide du patrimoine en France . Monum, Edition du patrimoine, Paris 2002, ISBN 2-85822-760-8 , p. 537.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Les Aygues Castle in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  2. ↑ Information on the palace gardens on the palace website , accessed on April 17, 2017.
  3. ↑ Les Aygues Castle on etretat.net , accessed on April 17, 2017.
  4. ↑ Séjourner aux Aygues on the castle website , accessed April 17, 2017.

Coordinates: 49 ° 42 ′ 18.1 ″  N , 0 ° 12 ′ 49.1 ″  E