Saint-Cloud Castle

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Saint-Cloud Castle with surrounding lands; Painting by Étienne Allegrain

The castle Saint-Cloud ( French Château de Saint-Cloud ) was a castle in the southwest of Paris . It was on the way from the French capital to Versailles between the two places Saint-Cloud and Sèvres on the high bank of the Seine .

history

The domain of Saint-Cloud had been royal property since the early Middle Ages and was sold by Catherine de Medici to the Florentine banker Jérôme de Gondi in 1577 . He had an existing hotel demolished and a first castle with an L-shaped floor plan built in its place in order to use it as a residence. The representative building also included terraced gardens, the original design of which Thomas Francine was involved in.

In 1589 Heinrich III was here . murdered by France.

The castle was rebuilt and embellished in 1625 by the Parisian Archbishop Jean-François de Gondi . After his death it came to Philippe-Emmanuel de Gondi (1580–1662) and then to his nephew Henri de Gondi (1590–1659), who sold it in 1655 to Barthélemy d'Hervart (1607–1676). In 1658 King Louis XIV bought the castle for his brother Philippe d'Orléans , known as Monsieur . He gradually bought adjoining lands and initially had a menagerie and an aviary built, and then from 1671 the park was renewed by André Le Nôtre .

The gallery d'Apollon of Saint Cloud (reconstruction)

From 1675–1676 a new castle was built by the architects Jules Hardouin-Mansart and Jean Girard . The painters Jean Nocret and his son Jean-Charles and Pierre Mignard were responsible for the interior decoration . Although the construction work was not quite finished, Monsieur gave a feast on October 10, 1678 for Louis XIV, Queen Marie Thérèse and other members of the royal family. The king liked the furnishings so much that he had Mignard design some of the rooms in Versailles.

The castle of Saint-Cloud was completed in 1680 and was the scene of numerous festivals and suppers until the death of Philippe d'Orléans in 1701 . It started with an eight-day festival with comedy performances and four balls , which the client gave for his brother, the Sun King, and his entourage, and which began on April 15, 1681. Saint-Cloud became the preferred residence of Philippe's second wife Liselotte von der Pfalz , who particularly appreciated the location and view over the Seine and the gardens and described Saint-Cloud as "... the most beautiful place in the world ...". She lived in an apartment of four rooms with a view of the gardens, which was decorated with paintings by Nocret. Her three children were born there and she died there in 1722. The cabinet belonging to it was her favorite place, where she wrote thousands of letters.

The castle remained in the possession of the Philippe d'Orléans family until Louis XVI. bought it for Marie Antoinette on October 24, 1784 . Later on were Napoleon Bonaparte , whose preferred residences were the castle, and Napoleon III. Owner of the castle.

During the Franco-Prussian War , Prussian and Bavarian troops occupied the castle on September 19, 1870. On October 13 of the same year, French troops attempted a sortie during the siege of Paris ; the castle was destroyed by French artillery fire. In 1891 the ruins were torn down.

Today, the Saint-Cloud Park is located on the site, where the International Office of Weights and Measures is located.

  • The castle from destruction

  • The destroyed castle (1871)

Castle Park

The castle park was built as early as the 16th century, but was only designed in its current size through plans by André Le Nôtre . Because of the length of the slope on the edge of the Seine valley, terraces were created that still exist today. The attraction of the park is the cascade , which was built by Antoine Le Pautre 1664-1665. The park consists of three large parts: In the immediate vicinity of the castle is the garden, which extends on the central terraces and to the west up the slope to the Bassin de la Grande Gerbe . To the east is the lower castle park, which stretches down the slope and along the Seine valley to Sèvres. There you will find the large cascade and the large fountain . To the west is the Grand Parc . Even after the castle was destroyed, its basic features have been preserved and are open to the public.

  • Saint-Cloud Chateau c1845.jpg
  • SaintCloud6.JPG
  • Parc saint-cloud.jpg
  • Bassin du Fer à Cheval, Parc de Saint-Cloud 004.JPG
  • Parc de Saint-Cloud Bassin de la Grande Gerbe.JPG

literature

  • Jean-Pierre Babelon: Châteaux de France au siècle de la Renaissance . Flammarion, Paris 1989, ISBN 2-08-012062-X , pp. 719 .
  • Jean Jacques Bourassé: Residences royales et impériales de France. History and monuments . A. Mame et fils, Tours 1864, pp. 267-285 ( digitized version ).
  • Antoine-Nicolas Dezallier d'Argenville: Voyage pittoresque des environs de Paris, ou Description des maisons royales, châteaux & autres lieux de plaisance, situations à quinze lieues aux environs de cette ville . 4th edition. Debure l'aîné, Paris 1779, pp. 41–59 ( digitized version ).
  • Eusèbe Girault de Saint-Fargeau: Les beautés de la France. Vues des principales villes, monuments, châteaux, cathédrales et sites pittoresques de la France . E. Blanchard, Paris 1850, pp. 29-32 ( digitized version ).
  • Adolphe Joanne: Les environs de Paris illustrés. Itinéraire descriptif et historique . L. Hachette, Paris 1856, pp. 173-187 ( digitized version ).
  • Francis Miltoun: Royal Palaces and Parks of France . LC Page, Boston 1910, pp. 229-243 ( digitized ).
  • Charles Percier , Pierre François Léonard Fontaine: Résidences de souverains. Parallèle entre plusieurs résidences de souverains de France, d'Allemagne, de Suède, de Russia, d'Espagne, et d'Italie . Reprint of the collection from 1833. Georg Olms, Hildesheim [u. a.] 1973, ISBN 3-487-04796-9 , pp. 95-110 ( digitized version of the original ).
  • Marius Vachon: Le château de Saint-Cloud. Son incendie en 1870. A. Quantin, Paris 1880, ( digitized ).
  • Jean Vatout: Le palais de Saint-Cloud, souvenirs historiques: son histoire et sa description . Didier, Paris 1852 ( digitized version ).
  • Theodor Fontane "The war against France 1870-1871", Manesse Library of World History, 4 volume edition, Volume 3, Chapter: Before and in Paris / Versailles, pages 311–315

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dirk Van der Cruysse: "To be a Madame is a great craft": Liselotte von der Pfalz - a German princess at the court of the Sun King . Piper, Munich 3rd edition, 1997, p. 153.
  2. ↑ Dirk Van der Cruysse: "To be a Madame is a great craft" . Piper, Munich 3rd edition, 1997, p. 154.
  3. ↑ Dirk Van der Cruysse: "To be a Madame is a great craft" . Piper, Munich 3rd edition, 1997, p. 154.
  4. ↑ Dirk Van der Cruysse: "To be a Madame is a great craft" . Piper, Munich 3rd edition, 1997, p. 154.
  5. ↑ Dirk Van der Cruysse: "To be a Madame is a great craft" . Piper, Munich 3rd edition, 1997, pp. 241-242.
  6. ↑ Dirk Van der Cruysse: "To be a Madame is a great craft" . Piper, Munich 3rd edition, 1997, p. 241.
  7. ↑ Dirk Van der Cruysse: "To be a Madame is a great craft" . Piper, Munich 3rd edition, 1997, pp. 242-243.
  8. ↑ Dirk Van der Cruysse: "To be a Madame is a great craft" . Piper, Munich 3rd edition, 1997, p. 245.
  9. ↑ Dirk Van der Cruysse: "To be a Madame is a great craft" . Piper, Munich 3rd edition, 1997, p. 241.
  10. ↑ Dirk Van der Cruysse: "To be a Madame is a great craft" . Piper, Munich 3rd edition, 1997, pp. 244–245.
  11. ↑ www.monuments-nationaux.fr ( Memento of March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  12. ↑ saint-cloud.monuments-nationaux.fr , accessed on April 27, 2018.

Coordinates: 48 ° 50 ′ 15.5 "  N , 2 ° 12 ′ 57.8"  E