Blérancourt () is a

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

in the

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

Aisne Aisne ( , ; ; pcd, Ainne) is a French department in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France. It is named after the river Aisne. In 2019, it had a population of 531,345.Hauts-de-France Hauts-de-France (; pcd, Heuts-d'Franche; , also ''Upper France'') is the northernmost Regions of France, region of France, created by the territorial reform of French regions in 2014, from a merger of Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy. Its Prefectu ...

in northern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Population

Sights

The Château de Blérancourt, an influential design by

Salomon de Brosse Salomon de Brosse (c. 1571 – 8 December 1626) was an early 17th-century French architect who moved away from late Mannerism to reassert the French classical style and was a major influence on François Mansart. Life Salomon was born in V ...

houses the National Museum of French-American Friendship and Cooperation, (''Musée franco-américain''), founded by Anne Morgan, daughter of the financier

J. Pierpont Morgan John Pierpont Morgan Sr. (April 17, 1837 – March 31, 1913) was an American financier and investment banker who dominated corporate finance on Wall Street throughout the Gilded Age. As the head of the banking firm that ultimately became known ...

(due to reopen in 2007). The collections of the Museum include many works on the theme of WW1, among them several paintings of

Joseph-Félix Bouchor Joseph-Félix Bouchor (15 September 1853 – 27 October 1937) was a French painter noted for his portraits and his Orientalist themes. Biography The artist was born in Paris. He studied at the Beaux-Arts. Joseph-Felix Bouchor exhibited his ...

.Franco-American Museum in Blérancourt, France The ''

corps de logis In architecture, a ''corps de logis'' () is the principal block of a large, (usually Classical architecture, classical), mansion or palace. It contains the principal rooms, state apartments and an entry.Curl, James Stevens (2006). ''Oxford Dict ...

'' of the château no longer exists, but de Brosse's twin cubical stone

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

s and a grand entrance gateway approached by a stone bridge across a

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

(now dry) survive. The pavilions have identical façades on all sides, framed in rusticated quoins at the corners: each consists of a pair of pedimented windows that make a composition with a central ''œil de bœuf'' window under a semicyclical arch that carries the dentilled cornice across and breaks into the roof balustrading above. Slate roofs with cyma curves converge to a central four-sided cap. The central gateway takes the form of a

triumphal arch A triumphal arch is a free-standing monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road. In its simplest form a triumphal arch consists of two massive piers connected by an arch, crow ...

with a prominent keystone. The

Jardins du Nouveau Monde The Jardins du Nouveau Monde (Gardens of the New World, 1 hectare) are gardens and a small arboretum containing plants from the Western Hemisphere located on the grounds of the Château de Blérancourt, now the Musée national de la Coopération Fr ...

, on its grounds, contain an

arboretum An arboretum (plural: arboreta) in a general sense is a botanical collection composed exclusively of trees of a variety of species. Originally mostly created as a section in a larger garden or park for specimens of mostly non-local species, man ...

and garden plants from the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...

. The house of

Louis de Saint-Just Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just (; 25 August 17679 Thermidor, Year II 8 July 1794, was a French revolutionary, political philosopher, member and president of the French National Convention, a Jacobin club leader, and a major figure of the Fre ...

now houses a museum devoted to the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

Notable people from Blérancourt

Claude-Nicolas Le Cat Claude-Nicolas Le Cat (6 September 1700 – 20 August 1768) was a French surgeon and science communicator. Biography Le Cat was born in Blérancourt (Picardy). He was the son of Claude Le Cat, a surgeon, and Anne-Marie Méresse, the daughter of a ...

(1700-1768) anatomist and surgeon. *

Louis Antoine de Saint-Just Louis Antoine Léon de Saint-Just (; 25 August 17679 Thermidor, Year II 8 July 1794, was a French revolutionary, political philosopher, member and president of the French National Convention, a Jacobin club leader, and a major figure of the Fre ...

(1767-1794) revolutionary and author.

References

Communes of Aisne Aisne communes articles needing translation from French Wikipedia {{Laon-geo-stub

Population

Sights

Notable people from Blérancourt

See also

References