The Château de Chamarande is a 17th-century French château in Chamarande, in the
Essonne
Essonne () is a department of France in the southern Île-de-France region. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659 across 194 communes.department.
History
The first "castle" of this name was established at Bonnes around 811 by Arteld, '' missus dominicus'' and brother of Einhard,
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first ...
's biographer. However, excavations on the site have shown that the place was not fortified.
A fortified château was built in the 16th century, probably for François Hurault ( prévôt des marchands de Paris and personal friend of king Henry IV), who in 1563 acquired the two seigneuries which make up the present estate and took up residence here. This castle corresponds to the present buildings of the commanderie. After the death of François Hurault in 1613, the château passed to his son Jean, who expanded the estate.
However, the château suffered in the
Fronde
The Fronde () was a series of civil wars in France between 1648 and 1653, occurring in the midst of the Franco-Spanish War, which had begun in 1635. King Louis XIV confronted the combined opposition of the princes, the nobility, the law cour ...
and was in a poor state by the time it was sold in 1654 to Pierre Mérault, the former fermier des
gabelle
The ''gabelle'' () was a very unpopular tax on salt in France that was established during the mid-14th century and lasted, with brief lapses and revisions, until 1946. The term ''gabelle'' is derived from the Italian ''gabella'' (a duty), itself ...
s who had been promoted to a noble by buying a écuyership, who was also secretary to king
Louis XIV
, house = Bourbon
, father = Louis XIII
, mother = Anne of Austria
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
, death_date =
, death_place = Palace of Ver ...
. It was Mérault who built the present castle. Its design was formerly attributed to
François Mansart
François Mansart (; 23 January 1598 – 23 September 1666) was a French architect credited with introducing classicism into Baroque architecture of France. The '' Encyclopædia Britannica'' cites him as the most accomplished of 17th-century Fr ...
without corroborating documentary evidence, but is now attributed to Nicolas de l'Espine. A rectangular building surrounded by a moat forms the living quarters, flanked on either side by the service wings The entrance to the main courtyard is flanked by two pavilions, with the left one containing the chapel. The estate was at the same time "ornamented with canals, lakes and fountains". André Le Nôtre helped design the park, though the dating and nature of his help are not known for certain.
In debt, Pierre Mérault sold the estate in 1684 to Clair Gilbert d'Ornaison known as Chamarande, top "valet de chambre" to Louis XIV. The year after the sale, Louis promoted Bonnes into the "county of Charamande" by letters patent. At d'Ornaison's death in 1737, the château passed to his first cousin and heir, Louis de Talaru, marquis de Chalmazel, maître d'hôtel of queen
Marie Leszczyńska
Maria Karolina Zofia Felicja Leszczyńska (; ; 23 June 1703 – 24 June 1768), also known as Marie Leczinska, was Queen of France as the wife of King Louis XV from their marriage on 4 September 1725 until her death in 1768. The daughter of Stanis ...
. The architect
Pierre Contant d'Ivry
Pierre Contant d'Ivry (11 May 1698 in Ivry-sur-Seine – 1 October 1777 in Paris), was a French architect and designer working in a chaste and sober Rococo style and in the ''goût grec'' phase of early Neoclassicism.
Early career
An ''Architecte ...
worked on the château for de Talaru, building new service quarters beyond the secondary route near the village, and to the estate added an
orangery
An orangery or orangerie was a room or a dedicated building on the grounds of fashionable residences of Northern Europe from the 17th to the 19th centuries where orange and other fruit trees were protected during the winter, as a very lar ...
, a
belvédère
Belvédère (; oc, Barver; it, Belvedere) is a Communes of France, commune in the Vésubie valley north of Nice in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department in southeastern France. The village of Belvédère is located at the entran ...
, an oval bosquet for " Jeu de l'oie" with a temple of love at its centreSome remains survive. and a cascatelle. He demolished the wall of the courtyard along the moat and put an ironwork gate with two lampholders in front of the bridge. He also modernised the interior decor, creating a little salon gros near the vestibule and the grand salon d'angle.
In the 1780s, a water feature was added, with an island bordered by
bald cypress
''Taxodium distichum'' (bald cypress, swamp cypress; french: cyprès chauve;
''cipre'' in Louisiana) is a deciduous conifer in the family Cupressaceae. It is native to the southeastern United States. Hardy and tough, this tree adapts to a wide ...
es from
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
at its centre - it is traditionally attributed to the painter and garden designer
Hubert Robert
Hubert Robert (22 May 1733 – 15 April 1808) was a French painter in the school of Romanticism, noted especially for his landscape paintings and capricci, or semi-fictitious picturesque depictions of ruins in Italy and of France.Jean de Cayeux. ...
. After 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 coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
, Louis-Justin, marquis de Talaru, bought the estate under the
Consulate
A consulate is the office of a consul. A type of diplomatic mission, it is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in the capital of that foreign country (host state), usually an embassy (or, only between two Commonwealth c ...
and carried out repairs, redesigning the park ' à l'anglaise'. Mayor of Chamarande, he lived at the Château until his death in 1850.
In 1852, the estate was sold to Pierre and René Robineau, and in 1857 it became the property of Victor Fialin, comte then duc de Persigny, interior minister to Napoléon III and French ambassador to the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
. He created a luxuriously-furnished gallery on the château's ground floor, built a fortified wall round the estate, completed the transformation of the park into the "à l'anglaise" style and planted exotic trees. New service buildings were added : a farm, stables, a bergerie, a birdhouse, a
kennel
A kennel is a structure or shelter for dogs. Used in the plural, ''the kennels'', the term means any building, collection of buildings or a property in which dogs are housed, maintained, and (though not in all cases) bred. A kennel can be made ...
winter garden
A winter garden is a kind of garden maintained in wintertime.
History
The origin of the winter garden dates back to the 17th to 19th centuries where European nobility would construct large conservatories that would house tropical and subtro ...
. Near the new gate was placed an obelisk inspired by the '' Songe de Poliphile'', which probably referred to the love-affairs of Henry II with
Diane de Poitiers
Diane de Poitiers (9 January 1500 – 25 April 1566) was a French noblewoman and prominent courtier. She wielded much power and influence as King Henry II's royal mistress and adviser until his death. Her position increased her wealth and famil ...
. In 1862 (ten years before his death), Persigny held a fête at Chamarande for the birthday of
empress Eugénie
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother (empr ...
.
In 1876, the château was acquired by Aristide Boucicaut, founder of ''
Bon Marché
''Bon'', also spelled Bön () and also known as Yungdrung Bon (, "eternal Bon"), is a Tibetan religious tradition with many similarities to Tibetan Buddhism and also many unique features.Samuel 2012, pp. 220-221. Bon initially developed in t ...
'', who added a Renaissance-style dining room but died only a year after purchasing the château. His widow took it with her when she remarried in 1881, to the doctor Marie-Joseph-Laurent Amodru, mayor of Chamarande until 1922 and député for Seine-et-Oise. After 1913, the waterfall had copies of the river statues from the parc de Versailles added. From 1923 to 1951, the château was central to the creation of Scouting in France (the foundation of the regional heads of the
Scouts et Guides de France
Scouts et Guides de France (''Scouts and Guides of France'', SGdF) is the largest Scouting and Guiding association in France. It was formed on 1 September 2004 from the merger of two Roman Catholic Scouting organizations: the Guides de France (fo ...
is always called the ''
Cham
Cham or CHAM may refer to:
Ethnicities and languages
*Chams, people in Vietnam and Cambodia
**Cham language, the language of the Cham people
***Cham script
*** Cham (Unicode block), a block of Unicode characters of the Cham script
*Cham Albania ...
'' in reference to Chamarande). In 1950, the first À cœur joie festival took place at Chamarande, before becoming the
Festival
A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival ...
Vaison-la-Romaine
Vaison-la-Romaine (; oc, Vaison) is a town in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.
Vaison-la-Romaine is famous for its rich Roman ruins and mediaeval town and cathedral. It is also unusual in ...
.
In 1957, the last private owner was Auguste Mione, president of "La Construction moderne française", before the estate was bought in 1978, by the
General Council General council may refer to:
In education:
* General Council (Scottish university), an advisory body to each of the ancient universities of Scotland
* General Council of the University of St Andrews, the corporate body of all graduates and senio ...
of the
Essonne
Essonne () is a department of France in the southern Île-de-France region. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659 across 194 communes.Dominique Marchès, founder of the Vassivière art centre. He was its first director, followed by Judith Quentel (2005 to present). It has a permanent collection (entitled ''L'esprit des lieux''), bought with a fund of the Essonne department and including works by Lilian Bourgeat, Erik Samakh ("flûtes solaires", in the park), Miguel Egana (''Feuilles scies'', 2001, in the park), Bert Theis (giant white crosses, in the park) and Philippe Ramette. The permanent sculpture park in the estate, plays off the existing features - the icehouse houses a sound installation by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot, and the orangery presents monograph exhibitions dedicated to young artists :
*2007 :
** Sammy Engramer
** David Évrard
*2008 :
** Sylvain Rousseau
In season, from May to October, the centre hosts story-telling, music, dance and film festivals as well as gardening and heritage events in the park. The park (now one of the "Jardins remarquables") also hosts an important garden show in
Île-de-France
The Île-de-France (, ; literally "Isle of France") is the most populous of the eighteen regions of France. Centred on the capital Paris, it is located in the north-central part of the country and often called the ''Région parisienne'' (; en, Pa ...
Saint-Jean-de-Beauregard
Saint-Jean-de-Beauregard () is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France in northern France.
Inhabitants of Saint-Jean-de-Beauregard are known as ''Bellinagardinois''.
See also
*Communes of the Essonne department
The following is ...
Hachette Hachette may refer to:
* Hachette (surname)
* Hachette (publisher), a French publisher, the imprint of Lagardère Publishing
** Hachette Book Group, the American subsidiary
** Hachette Distribution Services, the distribution arm
See also
* Hachett ...
, 1992, p. 157
* Bénédicte Ramade, « Chamarande, de découvertes en surprises », ''L'Œil'', Juillet-Août 2007, p. 78