Vaux-le-Vicomte Castle

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Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte - garden side (June 2015)

The Vaux-le-Vicomte in France Maincy in Melun in Seine-et-Marne (Region Ile-de-France ) and its park were in the years 1656 to 1661 on the initiative of the French finance minister Nicolas Fouquet by the architect Louis Le Vau and the garden architect André Le Nôtre in the classicist Baroque style . The interior was designed by the painter Charles Lebrun , who brought in Pierre Mignard and Pierre Puget for the execution .

history

Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte - front and entrance portal (June 2015)
Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte - View into the dome of the castle

A total of three villages had to give way to the complex, which included a spacious park in addition to the garden. On August 17, 1661, Nicolas Fouquet organized an opulent festival with 6,000 exquisite guests in honor of King Louis XIV , who came from his Fontainebleau castle . In addition to the lavish staging of the festivities in the palace and park (by the famous François Vatel among others ), Fouquet's magnificent interior and solid gold tableware caused a sensation. The entire house was furnished with expensive brocade , mirrors, and marble tables with gilded feet. The king, whose various castles in and around Paris had nothing comparable to oppose the novel concept of Vaux-le-Vicomte, is said to have been annoyed by the public display of Fouquet's wealth, which deepened his bad opinion of Fouquet. Three weeks after this splendid inauguration ceremony, he had Fouquet arrested on September 5, 1661, because he had embezzled state funds and built a fortress without the king's consent, which, from the king's point of view, posed a threat to the state. From the Fouquet affair , the legend later developed that Louis XIV had his finance minister arrested out of envy of Vaux-le-Vicomte. This is unlikely, however, because Fouquet's removal and imprisonment had long been decided in August 1661. Nevertheless, this legend made the castle's beauty immortal, and not only in art history. Today one of the advertising slogans of the Vaux domain is: The castle that aroused the envy of the Sun King.

In the same year, Louis XIV arranged for the three formative artists of Vaux-le-Vicomte (Le Vau, Le Brun and Le Nôtre) to renovate and expand the small hunting lodge of Versailles . Vaux-le-Vicomte was sold in 1704 by the Fouquet family to Claude-Louis-Hector de Villars , a French general and hero of the War of the Spanish Succession , and renamed Vaux-Villars. Shortly afterwards, Louis XIV elevated Vaux to a duchy as an award for the merits of its owner.

Land acquisition and building preparations

Long before construction began, Fouquet acquired the first building land in February 1641, and it was not until 1656 that he was able to complete the building land. It extended over a hilly area of ​​500 hectares, which was crossed by small streams. Le Vau probably began drafting the castle in 1655; construction began on February 26, 1656, and the foundations were completed in August 1656.

Shell construction and expansion

The shell of the palace complex was completed in September 1657, Le Brun began painting in September 1658. Le Nôtre probably began planning the extensive gardens around 1656, which had to include the landscape requirements (streams, hilly terrain).

Other owners

After Fouquet's death in prison in 1680, the castle came into the possession of Marshal Claude-Louis-Hector de Villars in 1701, and in 1875 it was bought by the industrialist Alfred Sommier, who restored the dilapidated gardens and restored the castle until 1893. In 1911 his descendant Edme Sommier had another renovation done. Between 1939 and 1942 the castle was occupied by German troops. The castle, which is still privately owned, has been open to the public since 1968.

Overall system

Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte - The complex from the perspective of the statue of Hercules

Vaux-le-Vicomte surpassed all the palaces and gardens known in France up to that point in terms of splendor and design consistency. Never before had the approach, the courtyards and outbuildings, the residential building itself and the garden been subjected to such a strict, all-encompassing order. The entire system is structured hierarchically, symmetrically and axially. Already on the north side, a five-beam with a prominent central axis gathers the spatial forces and guides them to the forecourt and the courtyard. Since windows and doors were previously open in the middle area of ​​the residential building, the main axis could be followed even better through the building to the symmetrically laid out garden, where it leads over the parterres with the framing boscettes into the distant forest area.

The entire complex consists of three areas that are closely connected to one another: the courtyards and the facade of the palace, the interior design and furnishings, and the gardens behind the palace.

Forecourt and farm buildings

To the right and left of the castle forecourt (French: Avant-cour ) are the - externally symmetrical - farm buildings (French: Communs ): stables, servants' quarters and the castle chapel. In contrast to the Corps de Logis, its architecture has brick surfaces with house integration. While the eastern complex is not accessible to visitors today, the western one houses a carriage museum and the visitor center with shop and restaurant.

Corps de Logis

Front view of the castle

The corps de logis of the castle is surrounded by moats like a castle , but they have no military significance here, but are to be understood as a formula of dignity. The same applies to the tower-like pavilions with their pitched roofs at the corners. The pavilions are structured on the outside by a colossal Ionic order with pilasters that encompasses both floors - emphasized old-fashioned in the irregular formation of two-axis facades to the courtyard and on the narrow sides. One element borrowed from the sacred building is the cross-oval, central pavilion on the garden side, the domed roof of which is crowned by a lantern . The exterior is adorned with busts and the heraldic animal Fouquets, the squirrel, can be found again and again.

With this corps de logis , which is already highlighted by its island platform and the base, it was possible to accommodate the representative living and common rooms on the ground floor, which allows a close connection to the garden. A representative staircase could thus be dispensed with.

The corps de logis has a strictly symmetrical floor plan. From the main courtyard , whose side wings protrude only a little, you first enter the vestibule and then the grand salon in the middle of the garden side. The windows and the middle door of this large hall facing the garden were once open. So there was already an impressive fan view over the garden. The hall is two-story, a so-called Salle à l'Italienne . Below, a pilaster arrangement divides the walls. On the floor above there are sixteen dome-bearing figures that represent the twelve months and the four seasons. Since the dome ceiling was not yet painted at the time of Fouquet's arrest, Le Brun's studies for the ceiling paintings are now on display in the dome hall.

From the salon, the apartments open symmetrically on both sides, the rooms of which with axially aligned doors form an enfilade through the entire building . The eastern apartment was intended as the apartment du roi for the royal guest, the western one for the landlord. Each apartment initially has an anteroom (French: antichambre ). From there you get to the actual room ( chambre ), a multifunctional bedroom, living room and reception room. The adjoining cabinet (French: cabinet ) has the function of a retreat.

In the interior, the wall decorations have largely been preserved due to the multiple changes of ownership, but the original furniture is missing. Today's facility is a modern museum presentation. The room intended for the king is impressive (French: Chambre du roi ). The castle contains the first dining room in France that was expressly planned and used as such.

garden

Garden as seen from the lantern
Garden as seen from the terrace

The 73 hectare gardens are designed by André Le Nôtre in the French style; it is considered the first baroque garden in France. He anticipates the basic idea of ​​the gardens of Versailles .

The palace and garden are closely linked, and the garden is strictly geometrical. A wide staircase leads from the castle to a bridge that leads over the moat surrounding the castle to the Broderieparterre , the beginning of the garden. A large avenue , lined with water candelabra, forms the main axis of the garden. It ends at a water basin and a wall of arcades . The geometric arrangement is striking: the transversely running pools cannot be seen from the palace terrace, but suddenly appear as if by magic when walking through the various levels in the park. The clear lines of sight that emerge from the castle and from certain points in the park through the complex and the surrounding park forests are striking.

The Tiber and Anqueil rivers, personified by sculptures, are located on a water basin . As a mirror pond, a fish pond reflects the castle as a whole. The farthest point on the site from the castle is a hill with a statue of Hercules Farnese , from which almost the entire complex can be seen.

On certain summer days, the garden's water features, which are still in their original state and are operated from a rainwater basin by pure gravity, are put into operation.

The castle today

The castle is now owned by the de Vogüé family and is open to visitors in the summer months. Visites aux chandelles , candlelit visits, are a special event ; on certain evenings the palace and park are bathed in the light of 2,000 candles. Golf carts are also available for visitors wishing to explore the park for a fee .

The carriage museum with restored or recreated vehicles is also worth seeing.

The interiors are predominantly furnished in the style of the palace's construction period. Almost unique in France is the tour of the roof structure of the dome and access to the crowning lantern of the castle, which is subject to a surcharge. You should plan at least three hours for a tour of the entire facility.

Vaux-le-Vicomte is often used as a film set, for example in James Bond - Moonraker , The Queen's Collar , Marie Antoinette , The Professional or in the more recent film adaptation of The Man in the Iron Mask .

Every year around 300,000 visitors come, who contribute around 70% of the budget expenditure of 1.3 million euros with admission tickets and merchandising . Of this, 52% is spent on the gardens and 36% on the buildings, which are looked after by 81 employees.

Since 1996, the castle has been on France's list of proposals for UNESCO World Heritage .

location

The castle is located 55 km southeast of Paris and can be reached by car ( Autoroute A6 towards Fontainebleau to Melun , from there 6 km via the D636 and D215 to the castle). A railway connection with the Transilien the line P (towards Provins) from Paris Gare de l'Est leads to l'Etang Verneuil , from there drive taxis and a shuttle bus to the castle. Between March 31st and October 31st (excluding Tuesdays) there is also a direct bus to and from the center of Paris. The bus can be booked on the castle website.

Others

Champ d'Or, a castle-like building thirty miles north of Dallas , resembles Vaux-le-Vicomte Castle.

A robbery that became known on September 20, 2019, in which the owners of the castle were handcuffed, caused damage of around two million euros, according to the public prosecutor.

literature

in alphabetical order

Movies

  • André Le Notre. The King's Gardener. Documentation, France 2013, 52 min. (Especially about the development of Viscount, also as his reference object for Versailles)

Web links

Commons : Vaux-le-Vicomte Castle  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Christine Howald, The case of Nicolas Fouquet: Patronage as a means of political self-expression 1653–1661 , 2011, p. 180
  2. ↑ Christine Howald, The Case of Nicolas Fouquet: Patronage as a Means of Political Self-Expression 1653–1661 , 2011, p. 80
  3. ↑ a b Christine Howald, The case of Nicolas Fouquet: Patronage as a means of political self-expression 1653–1661 , 2011, p. 84
  4. ↑ Christine Howald, The case of Nicolas Fouquet: Patronage as a means of political self-expression 1653–1661 , 2011, p. 85
  5. ↑ Knaurs Kulturführer, Paris and Île-de-France , 1998, p. 228 f.
  6. ^ Christine Howald, The case of Nicolas Fouquet: Patronage as a means of political self-expression 1653–1661 , 2011, p. 91
  7. ↑ Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte. UNESCO World Heritage Center, September 20, 1996, accessed January 15, 2018 (French).
  8. ↑ www.mansionglobal.com
  9. ↑ https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/barockschloss-bei-paris-wurde-ausgeraubt.265.de.html?drn:news_id=1051042

Coordinates: 48 ° 33 ′ 57 "  N , 2 ° 42 ′ 51"  E