Vigny castle

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North facade of the Vigny castle
Castle view from the south

The Vigny Castle ( French Château de Vigny ) is a neo-Gothic castle in the French commune of Vigny of the department of Val-d'Oise . It emerged from a manor house ( French manoir ) of the 14th century, which was replaced at the beginning of the 16th century by Georges d'Amboise with a Renaissance castle .

Throughout its history the complex has belonged to some of the most powerful families in France, including members of the Amboise , Montmorency and Rohan houses . They received high-ranking personalities there such as the kings Heinrich II. And Ludwig XIII. and Cardinal Richelieu . By the Count Philippe Vitali, prince de Eusebio, from 1888 first repaired in neo-Gothic style and changed, is across the highly endangered in their substance castle since 2018 restored and renovated. The work is supported with public funds, lotteries, donations and through the support of monument institutions. The aim is to permanently save both the castle , which has been classified as an inscribed Monument historique ( French Monument historique inscrit ) since December 28, 1984, and its park , which was included in the French monument inventory on April 27, 1988 .

history

Beginnings

A Seigneurie Vigny already existed in the 13th century, but a manor house there is only guaranteed for 1337 . That year, Éloi (also Eloit) de Loudon, known as Souillart, son and heir of Jeanne la Crespelle, renounced his rights to the Manoir in Vigny. Later, the Seigneurie was owned by the Courcelles family. According to ancient chronicles, it is said to have come to Richard Marbury, a henchman of John of Lancaster , first Duke of Bedford , during the Hundred Years War . His children from his marriage to Jeanne de La Croix sold the property in 1501 to Louis de Hédouville, Seigneur von Sandricourt and in 1495 Bailli and Governor of Blois . After his death, his widow Françoise de Rouvray sold the manor and land on November 16, 1504 to Cardinal Georges d'Amboise.

The Amboise and Montmorency families

Georges dʼAmboise laid the foundation stone for today's castle; 16th century portrait

The first minister of Louis XII. had a castle built in Vigny, the basic layout of which was still reminiscent of medieval fortifications as a closed four-wing complex, but at the same time already showed the first elements of the French Renaissance. It is not certain whether Georges d'Amboise had an existing building expanded or converted or a completely new one built. It is possible that construction of the palace had already started shortly before the cardinal became the new Seigneur. It is known that he liked to retire to Vigny to gain distance from political affairs and the French royal court. At the same time, Georges' nephew Charles II d'Amboise was completing the rebuilding of the Chaumont castle on the Loire , which presumably served as a model for the complex in Vigny because the two castles are very similar. When Georges' death in 1510, the construction work in Vigny was still ongoing, and it was up to his heir, Georges II d'Amboise , to finish building the castle. He increased the land holdings by buying surrounding lands and in 1541 he also acquired the neighboring Manoir de la Comté . He died in the castle in 1550 and left it to his sister Renée dʼAmboise, who sold the complex on June 23, 1555 for 50,000  livres to Anne de Montmorency , Connétable of France . Its motto Aplanos (in German roughly “steadfast, constant, straightforward”) can be found above the main portal . It was removed (presumably during the reign of Louis XIV ) in order to add a balcony at this point . Fragments of the inscription and the Montmorency coat of arms were found in the castle moat at the end of the 19th century and used for today's reconstruction.

The Lévis and Rohan families

Anne de Montmorency bequeathed the castle to his wife Madeleine de Savoie, who owned it until her death in 1586. Then it went to the couple's third son, Charles , on whose childless death in 1612 it was given to his nephew Henri II. De Montmorency , Admiral of France . However, Charles' widow Renée de Cossé had a lifelong right of usufruct , so that Henri II was only given power of disposal over the complex after her death in 1622. Because of his participation in an uprising against Cardinal Richelieu, he was executed in Toulouse in 1632 and his property confiscated by the crown. Henri's sister Marguerite, widowed Duchess of Ventadour , received Vigny back from the king in March 1633. When she died in 1660, she bequeathed the castle to her third son, François Christophe de Lévis-Ventadour. But because he died unmarried the following year, the inheritance went to Louis-Charles de Lévis , the son of François Christophes older brother Charles. The heir was still a minor at the time and was under the guardianship of his mother Marie de La Guiche. Until her son took over the management of his estates himself, she called herself dame de Vigny .

Vigny and his castle in the Trudaine Atlas, 1745–1780

Louis-Charles’ only daughter Anne-Geneviève from his marriage to Charlotte de La Mothe-Houdancourt married Louis-Charles de La Tour d'Auvergne, prince de Turenne, in 1691, and received the Vigny lap as a dowry . After the early death of her first husband, she married Hercule-Mériadec de Rohan for the second time, and when she died in 1727, she left Vigny to her grandson Charles de Rohan , Prince of Soubise , the eldest son of her late son Jules Francois Louis de Rohan. Just a year before her death, she had a new chapel built in the castle . Charles was only eleven years old at the time of inheritance and his parents had both died of smallpox two years earlier ; therefore, the castle and estate of Vigny were initially administered by his grandfather Hercule-Mériadec. But even after he came of age, Charles stayed very seldom in Vigny, because he preferred the newer and more comfortable Roberval Castle , which he had inherited from his grandfather, as his place of residence . Because of high debts he had to sell the usufructuary right to the castle in Vigny in 1759 to Jean-Baptiste Yvel. He left the facility to Charles’ daughter Victoire Armande Josephe for use. She withdrew there after she and her husband Henri Louis Marie de Rohan caused a scandal in Paris by their utter brankrott. The couple had therefore left the court in 1782 and had to give up all court offices. At that time, the castle buildings were already badly dilapidated and the castle chapel was no longer used and had been emptied.

In bourgeois hands and restoration in the neo-Gothic style

When Jean-Baptiste Yvel died in 1788, the usufructuary right to the castle did not return to the owners, as Charles de Rohan had already sold this right to Pierre Nicolas Comynet and his wife in 1782 for 100,000 livres for the time after Yvel's death. It was only after Comynet's death in 1817 that the Rohan family was able to fully dispose of the palace complex again. At that time, Louis VI owned equal shares . Henri Joseph de Bourbon, prince de Condé , and Louise-Adélaïde de Bourbon-Condé , the two children of Charles' daughter Charlotte from her marriage to Louis V Joseph de Bourbon , Prince of Condé, and Marie Louise Joséphine de Rohan, a daughter of Victoire , and Berthe Antoinette Aglaé de Rohan-Guéméné, a granddaughter of Victoire. Since the lands of the seigneurie could not be divided so that they corresponded to the four equal shares of their owners, the castle and manor were auctioned in 1822. The castle complex brought in 131,000 francs, for the other properties another 574,000 francs came together, so that the sales revenue totaled 705,000 francs. The new owners were Louis François Xavier Declercq and the Lefebvre couple, who each owned one half. A description of the palace complex from that time shows that it was already missing one of the original six towers. Presumably it had been deliberately laid down to soften the defensive character.

Vigny Castle after the construction work under Philippe Vitali

On December 30, 1829 Armand Meriadec Benjamin de Rohan-Rochefort, son of the Prince of Rochefort, and Berthe Antoinette Aglaé de Rohan-Guéméné bought the property back for the Rohan family. The purchase price was 700,000 francs. Berthe lived in the castle until her death in 1841 and left it to her husband, who died in 1846. On November 20, 1844, the castle and park were sold to Victoire Alexandrine Legrand, née Caffin, for 265,000 francs. She left it to her daughter of the same name, a married Madame Touchard, who sold it in two parts on June 7, 1855 and July 26, 1856 for a total of 270,000 francs to the Parisian banker Paul Lambert Louis Poictevin. On November 8, 1867, Count Philippe Vitali , prince de Sant'Eusebio, bought it from him for 280,000 francs. Vitali had made an impressive fortune as an entrepreneur in the railway sector and had the neglected castle restored in the neo-Gothic style by the architect and Viollet-le-Duc student Charles Henri Cazaux . From 1888, not only was the old building renovated, but ruinous parts were also laid down and replaced by new buildings. Under Philippe Vitali, the neo-Gothic chapel at the west end of the north wing (where, according to a description of the palace from 1660, the first palace chapel was assumed) and the massive donjon replica at the south end of the east wing were built. The two pavilions at the entrance to the castle grounds followed in 1894 , after the gardener's house had been restored two years earlier. The count also had the moats that had partially collapsed and silted up restored. The remains of two castle wings that have since disappeared were found. The work lasted until at least 1905, because the restoration of the coach house took place in that year. They gave the facility its current appearance. The interiors were equipped with the latest technology and furnishings, some of which were from the 15th to 17th centuries. The new lord of the castle also reforested the castle park and enlarged the property belonging to the castle so that it finally had a size of around 3800  hectares .

Since the beginning of the 20th century

Philippe Vitali left the castle to his son Georges on his death in 1909, who for financial reasons was forced to sell it. In 1919 the thought Conseil général of Seine-et-Oise from acquiring the equipment to operate in a kind of orphanage, but the plan was not realized. And so the system had been up for sale for several years before Robert Le Coat de Kerveguen bought it on June 13, 1922 for 800,000 francs. His family had made their fortune with spices, coffee and sugar cane on La Réunion and lived in the castle until 1992. The complex survived the Second World War almost completely unscathed, only part of the roof was damaged by a grenade . After a brief occupation by German soldiers, the castle was temporarily used as accommodation for workers before it served as a hospital for tuberculosis sufferers from the end of 1942 . In 1992 the owners decided to sell the entire property because, among other reasons, its maintenance was too difficult and expensive a matter. Vigny Castle went to the married couple Olivier and Isabelle Michelle Dewavrin on April 29th that year for 13 million francs, and on November 12th 2001 they sold it to a Japanese company under the management of Hisoto Mizumoto. Until 2009, it operated a cooking school for French cuisine , for which the former horse stables were converted into school kitchens. Another old building served as the school's bakery.

After the school closed, the palace complex remained unused for many years and stood empty. It was then offered for sale in 2015; its value had previously been estimated at around five million euros. With the SCI Château de Vigny, a new owner was found in 2016 who was willing to take care of the facility in need of renovation. Her managing director Fabrice Levesque wanted to set up a luxury hotel in it, but was confronted with unforeseen obstacles: all of the wooden structures in the main building were infected with dry rot, so that the planned nine months of restoration were nowhere near enough to put the castle back into use. After initially investing 600,000 euros, the estimated costs rose to six million euros for a second restoration phase due to the dry rot infestation. The measures are expected to end in 2021 at the earliest. After a final third restoration and refurbishment phase, the restoration of the entire palace complex will have cost an estimated 25 million euros.

description

Site plan of the castle from 1902

Vigny Castle stands in the heart of the Vexin français in the valley of the Oise . It is located in the center opposite the town hall of Vigny containing about 40 kilometers northeast of Paris Region Ile-de-France is located. The complex consists of a main castle and a few outbuildings on the castle grounds, which are surrounded by a castle park of around 20 hectares. This is partly designed as an English landscape garden and partly as a French baroque garden .

Main castle

The two-wing main castle stands on an approximately rectangular island. It is surrounded on all sides by a wide moat that is fed by the Aubette . The current building emerged from a four-wing moated castle of the Renaissance, the wings of which enclosed an almost square inner courtyard. In 1660 there were two square towers in this courtyard. The corners of the castle were secured by four round towers with machicolations , the main portal on the north side was protected again by two additional round towers. A drawbridge led over the moat to the castle gate. Another bridge existed on the southwest corner of the castle.

The facade of the Chaumont Castle is very similar to the Vignys

Of the buildings in the 17th century, only the north and east wings and five of the round towers with slate-covered conical roofs remain today. The northern drawbridge was replaced by a brick arch bridge. It leads to the fortified gate with a pointed arched gate , above which the coat of arms and motto of Anne de Montmorency can be found. The two flanking towers show the coats of arms of the Amboise and Rohan families. The current appearance of the castle is shaped by a historical restoration from 1888. Both the donjon at the end of the east wing and the neo-Gothic chapel at the end of the north wing are new buildings from the end of the 19th century. The facade of the northern wing is made entirely of light colored stone . It is certain that their great resemblance to the façade of Chaumont Castle is due to the fact that the same artists and craftsmen were involved in both castles. The outer facade of the east wing, on the other hand, shows quarry stone masonry . House stone is only represented there in the form of framing the window and door openings. The majority of the castle windows are cross-level windows , only the round towers show cross-level windows , which are crowned by keel arches . Large window openings at the height of the attic storey have elaborately crafted portholes with pinnacles and finials at the end .

The castle has 176 rooms on an area of ​​4000 m², the architectural furnishings of which are still in existence today and date from the end of the 19th century. These include the kitchen, dining room and bedroom including sanitary facilities in the donjon as well as salons , dressing room, playroom, billiard room, music room and library in the east wing. They illustrate very well the lifestyle of a rich industrial family who were raised to the nobility . In the north wing, the rooms on the three upper floors were accessed by a stair tower facing the courtyard .

Outbuildings

The Manoir de la Comté is one of the many outbuildings

About a dozen outbuildings belong to the palace area, which are also listed buildings. This also includes the so-called Manoir de la Comté , a manor house from the 16th century that the castle owners used as winter quarters because it was easier to heat than the large main castle. This also includes: the guard house, the stables , an orangery , four entrance pavilions, greenhouses and the manor house that was formerly part of the castle with a pigeon tower with 4,250 nesting holes .

The castle as a film set

Vigny Castle was often used as a backdrop for film productions. More than 40 projects have so far been implemented on the palace grounds or in the interior. Part of the French drama The Blue Veil ( Le voile bleu ) with Gaby Morlay was filmed there as early as 1942 . Just a year later, Abel Gances Fracasse, the cheeky cavalier ( Le Capitaine Fracasse ) followed with Fernand Gravey and Assia Noris . In the 1960s, Jean-Paul Le Chanois used the castle as a backdrop for his film Mandrin, the great musketeer ( Mandrin, bandit gentilhomme ), as did Georges Lautner for his 1964 agents of grotesque recipes for murder by the Barbouzes ( Les Barbouzes ). Other films shot in Vigny were the burlesque hurray, the 7th company is back! ( On a retrouvé la septième compagnie ) by the director Robert Lamoureux (1975), the comedy A Crazy Guy with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Raquel Welch in the leading roles (1977) and in 1993 Jean-Marie Poiré's The Visitors and the Coat-and-Sword -Film D'Artagnan's daughter ( La Fille de d'Artagnan ), which was released in 1994 with Sophie Marceau . The palace complex was most recently seen in the French television series Ce jour-là, tout a changé (2009 to 2010) and in the music video for the song Te amo by R&B singer Rihanna .

literature

  • Claude Danis: Châteaux et manoirs en Val d'Oise. Editions du Valhermeil, Saint-Ouen-lʼAumône 2002, pp. 88–89.
  • Sophie-Dorothée Delesalle (Ed.): Le Patrimoine des Communes du Val-d'Oise. Volume 2. Flohic, Paris 1999, ISBN 2-84234-056-6 , pp. 1014-1015.
  • Gustave Eyriès: Les châteaux historiques de la France. Volume 1. Oudin, Paris, Poitiers 1877, pp. 155-166 ( digitized version ).
  • José Gilles: Châteaux et châtelains du Vexin. Les environs de Vigny, 1st partie. Histoire et patrimoine du Vexin, Frémécourt 2014, ISBN 978-2-9534316-2-9 , pp. 1-42.
  • Georges Tubeuf, A. Maire: Domaine de Vigny (Seine et Oise) appartenant au comte Philippe Vitali. Monograph du château et de lʼéglise. Fanchon, Paris 1902 ( digitized )

Web links

Commons : Vigny castle  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ a b Information about the castle and a fundraising campaign on the Dartagnans website , accessed on October 21, 2020.
  2. ↑ Entry of the castle in the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture (French)
  3. ^ José Gilles: Châteaux et châtelains du Vexin. Les environs de Vigny, 1st partie. 2014, p. 40.
  4. ↑ a b c d e Vigny Castle on the Fondation Patrimoine website , accessed on October 19, 2020.
  5. ↑ Year of first mention according to the information on the castle website. Tubeuf / Maire, however, name the year 1377. Compare Georges Tubeuf, A. Maire: Domaine de Vigny (Seine et Oise) appartenant au comte Philippe Vitali. Monograph du château et de lʼéglise. 1902, p. 12.
  6. ^ Georges Tubeuf, A. Maire: Domaine de Vigny (Seine et Oise) appartenant au comte Philippe Vitali. Monograph du château et de lʼéglise. 1902, p. 12.
  7. ^ A b José Gilles: Châteaux et châtelains du Vexin. Les environs de Vigny, 1st partie. 2014, p. 3.
  8. ↑ a b c d e Castle history on the municipality's website , accessed on October 19, 2020.
  9. ^ A b José Gilles: Châteaux et châtelains du Vexin. Les environs de Vigny, 1st partie. 2014, p. 4.
  10. ^ Georges Tubeuf, A. Maire: Domaine de Vigny (Seine et Oise) appartenant au comte Philippe Vitali. Monograph du château et de lʼéglise. 1902, p. 30.
  11. ^ José Gilles: Châteaux et châtelains du Vexin. Les environs de Vigny, 1st partie. 2014, p. 9.
  12. ^ Georges Tubeuf, A. Maire: Domaine de Vigny (Seine et Oise) appartenant au comte Philippe Vitali. Monograph du château et de lʼéglise. 1902, p. 34.
  13. ↑ José Gilles: Châteaux et châtelains du Vexin. Les environs de Vigny, 1st partie. 2014, p. 12.
  14. ^ José Gilles: Châteaux et châtelains du Vexin. Les environs de Vigny, 1st partie. 2014, p. 13.
  15. ^ A b José Gilles: Châteaux et châtelains du Vexin. Les environs de Vigny, 1st partie. 2014, p. 17.
  16. ^ A b José Gilles: Châteaux et châtelains du Vexin. Les environs de Vigny, 1st partie. 2014, p. 18.
  17. ^ José Gilles: Châteaux et châtelains du Vexin. Les environs de Vigny, 1st partie. 2014, p. 21.
  18. ^ José Gilles: Châteaux et châtelains du Vexin. Les environs de Vigny, 1st partie. 2014, pp. 24-25.
  19. ^ A b José Gilles: Châteaux et châtelains du Vexin. Les environs de Vigny, 1st partie. 2014, p. 26.
  20. ^ A b José Gilles: Châteaux et châtelains du Vexin. Les environs de Vigny, 1st partie. 2014, p. 27.
  21. ^ José Gilles: Châteaux et châtelains du Vexin. Les environs de Vigny, 1st partie. 2014, p. 29.
  22. ^ A b José Gilles: Châteaux et châtelains du Vexin. Les environs de Vigny, 1st partie. 2014, p. 30.
  23. ↑ José Gilles: Châteaux et châtelains du Vexin. Les environs de Vigny, 1st partie. 2014, p. 28.
  24. ↑ a b History on the castle website , accessed on October 19, 2020.
  25. ↑ José Gilles: Châteaux et châtelains du Vexin. Les environs de Vigny, 1st partie. 2014, p. 32.
  26. ↑ José Gilles: Châteaux et châtelains du Vexin. Les environs de Vigny, 1st partie. 2014, pp. 32–33.
  27. ↑ a b c Information about the castle on the website of the Princes SantʼEusebio , accessed on October 19, 2020.
  28. ↑ José Gilles: Châteaux et châtelains du Vexin. Les environs de Vigny, 1st partie. 2014, p. 33.
  29. ^ Georges Tubeuf, A. Maire: Domaine de Vigny (Seine et Oise) appartenant au comte Philippe Vitali. Monograph du château et de lʼéglise. 1902, p. 86.
  30. ^ Georges Tubeuf, A. Maire: Domaine de Vigny (Seine et Oise) appartenant au comte Philippe Vitali. Monograph du château et de lʼéglise. 1902, p. 80.
  31. ↑ José Gilles: Châteaux et châtelains du Vexin. Les environs de Vigny, 1st partie. 2014, p. 38.
  32. ^ José Gilles: Châteaux et châtelains du Vexin. Les environs de Vigny, 1st partie. 2014, p. 39.
  33. ↑ José Gilles: Châteaux et châtelains du Vexin. Les environs de Vigny, 1st partie. 2014, p. 42.
  34. ^ A b Anne Collin: Le célèbre château de Vigny enfin racheté. In: Le Parisien . Edition of January 25, 2016 ( online ).
  35. ↑ a b c Marie Persidat: Vigny. Un chantier titanesque pour faire revivre le château. In: Le Parisien. Edition of September 22, 2019 ( online ).
  36. ↑ Maxime Laffiac: Val-d'Oise. Les travaux de restauration du château de Vigny ont repris. In: La gazette Val dʼOise. Edition of June 22, 2020 ( online ).
  37. ↑ Information on Vigny Castle on montjoye.net , accessed on October 21, 2020.
  38. ↑ José Gilles: Châteaux et châtelains du Vexin. Les environs de Vigny, 1st partie. 2014, p. 36.
  39. ↑ a b leaflet with information about the castle, its restoration and the associated donation campaign (PDF; 860 kB)
  40. ^ Vigny Castle on the Cinema et Cie website , accessed October 21, 2020.

Coordinates: 49 ° 4 ′ 35.7 "  N , 1 ° 55 ′ 34.4"  E