Maisons-Laffitte Castle
The baroque castle Maisons-Laffitte ( French Château de Maisons-Laffitte originally Château de Maisons ) is in the French commune of Maisons-Laffitte in the Yvelines department of the Île-de-France region . The exterior of the 17th century castle has been preserved almost unchanged and can be viewed by visitors.
history
The builder of the palace was the temporary president of the Paris Parliament , René de Longueil, who commissioned the court architect François Mansart to build it. Mansart was given a completely free hand in the design and was allowed to build the building according to his ideas. After its completion, René de Longueil mainly used the palace as a summer palace . After he died in 1677, Maisons-Laffitte remained in the possession of his family until 1732. In the 18th century the owners changed several times. The Longueil family was followed by the Belleforière and Soyécourt families, and from 1777 the castle passed to the brother of Louis XVI. , Charles Philippe , who emigrated during the French Revolution . The castle was confiscated and the furniture scattered. In 1804 it was bought by Marshal Lannes , a comrade in arms of Napoleon, and renovated. The emperor stayed in the castle regularly.
In 1818 it was bought by the Parisian banker Jacques Laffitte , to whom part of the current name goes back. After 1830 he converted a large part of the park into building land and also had the horse stables of the castle demolished. At the instigation of his nephew Charles Laffitte, one of the founders of the Société d'encouragement pour l'amélioration de la race chevaline , the first races were organized in the meadows on the banks of the Seine. Joseph Oller , inventor of racing betting, bought the site and turned it into a hippodrome, which was inaugurated in 1878. Albinne Laffitte inherited the castle in 1844 before selling it to Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar , insurer and inventor of the arithmometer , in 1850 . In 1877 the heirs of Thomas de Colmar handed the castle over to the painter Tilman Grommé. At the beginning of the 20th century, the castle was threatened with demolition. The state bought the castle. It has been a monument historique since 1914 . It is open to visitors today. The interior and the garden area can be viewed. Changing exhibitions are also presented in the castle.
The French poet Charles Perrault described Maisons-Laffitte as "... one of the most beautiful things we have in France."
The construction
Maisons-Laffitte Castle is a typical French country castle of the 17th century, similar to Vaux-le-Vicomte Castle or the original building of Versailles Palace . It was built by François Mansart between 1642 and 1651 and is an example of the buildings at the transition from the Italian-influenced to the French-style classicist Baroque 16th century. The shell of the building was completed in 1646, the interior fittings dragged on until 1651.
The horseshoe-shaped structure consists of three individual pavilions : the seven-axis central corps de logis and two side wings facing the courtyard with a width of two and a depth of four axes. The individual components are all covered by high hipped roofs. While the rear facades with the courtyard of honor formed by the side wings point north-west to today's city of Maisons-Laffitte, the garden facade of the palace faces south-east towards the Seine . The façades of the two-storey castle are decorated all around with Tuscan and Ionic columns and pilasters , the central projection of the Corps de Logis is raised by a third storey-like tower.
While the castle can be entered directly from the courtyard, it is separated from the garden by a horseshoe-shaped ornamental moat that allows a view of the basement. The castle is connected to the garden ground floor via a stone bridge and a terrace . The castle was once surrounded by a spacious baroque garden , some of which has now been integrated into the urban area. The garden parterre southeast of the palace is still designed in baroque forms, the geometric system of paths in the street layout can still be recognized. A line of sight several kilometers long leads from the garden facade over the Seine towards Houilles.
The interior of the castle
The interiors of the palace have been redesigned several times over the centuries and their furnishings range from the baroque style of Louis-Treize to the empire of the 19th century.
The ground floor
The prisoners' parlor is in the corner. It owes its name to the decoration of the fireplace, which Gilles Guérin made in honor of Louis XIII. , created. The room is decorated with paintings, including Paysage avec cascade ( Landscape with Cascade ) by Hubert Robert .
The main entrance in the middle leads to the vestibule of the castle. It has eight columns of Doric order with the initials of René de Longueil and his wife. Four bas-reliefs allude to the four elements: Cybele (earth), Juno (air), Neptune (water) and Jupiter (fire).
The grand staircase is on the side of the vestibule. It consists of four legs that are hung around a wide opening. The congregation used stereotomy (a new technique in France in the 1640s ).
Charles Philippe redesigned this apartment under the direction of his architect François-Joseph Bélanger in the neoclassical style.
The first floor
The royal apartment has Italian-style domes and barrel vaults. It includes a 17th century ballroom, a drawing room and the king's bedroom with original parquet floors and a parade bed in an alcove. The cabinet of mirrors is a refined room with its marquetry parquet and its dome decorated by Michel Corneille the Younger.
Marshal Lannes' room is designed in the Empire style .
Maisons-Laffitte as a role model and film set
Maisons-Laffitte served, among other things, as a structural model for the Château de Franconville built by Gabriel-Hippolyte Destailleur in Val-d'Oise and the Plaza Constitución train station in Buenos Aires .
In 2004, the Chinese building contractor Zhang Yuchen built a nearly detailed copy of the castle near Beijing for around 300 million US dollars . The building, known as Château Beijing Laffitte or Zhang-Laffitte , houses a hotel.
In the past, the palace has served as a film set several times, such as scenes for the films Dangerous Liaisons and Ridicule - From the Ridiculousness of Appearance and the historical series Versailles .
Web links
- Information about the castle (French)
- Center des Monuments Nationaux: Château de Maisons (French, English)
- Maisons-Laffitte Castle as a 3D model in SketchUp's 3D warehouse
Footnotes
- ↑ a b Maisons-Laffitte Castle. In: arch INFORM ; Retrieved May 19, 2010.
- ↑ Georges Poisson: De Maisons-sur-Seine à Maisons-Laffitte ... Association de sauvegarde et de mise en valeur du parc de Maisons-Laffitte, 1973, p. 57-60 (French).
- ↑ Annie Fourcaut: La banlieue en morceaux . Créaphis, 2000, pp. 28 (French, [1] ).
- ↑ Georges Poisson: De Maisons-sur-Seine à Maisons-Laffitte ... Association de sauvegarde et de mise en valeur du parc de Maisons-Laffitte, 1973, p. 81-86 (French).
- ↑ Perrault said accordingly: “ Le château de Maisons, dont Mansart a fait tous les bâtiments et les jardinages, est d'une beauté si singulière qu'il n'est point d'étranger qui ne l'aille voir comme l'une des plus belles choses que nous ayons en France. »Quote from Perrault on maisonslaffitte.net , accessed on May 20, 2010
- ↑ Aerial view of the castle
- ↑ a b c d e f Le Guide Vert. Île-de-France . Michelin, 2000, p. 240 (French).
- ↑ Fabien Alvarado David. (2016). Architectures. Le château de Maisons. Mansart . Arte - Musée du Louvre - Les Films d'Ici. 4th July 2018.
- ↑ Franconville Castle on the Officiel de l'office de tourisme site of Saint-Martin-du-Tertre ( Memento of the original of May 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 20, 2010
- ↑ History of the train station ( Memento of the original from April 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on historiadebuenosaires.arquitecturaliquida.com; Retrieved May 20, 2010.
- ↑ Silke Ballweg / haet: Stolen Buildings: How China Clones Western Cities (Fig. 6/15). Swiss Radio and Television (SRF), September 3, 2013, accessed on February 11, 2017 .
- ↑ The hotel's website ( Memento of the original from April 14, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed May 19, 2010.
Coordinates: 48 ° 56 ′ 50 ″ N , 2 ° 9 ′ 14 ″ E