The Château de Groussay is located in the town of

Montfort-l'Amaury Montfort-l'Amaury () is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region, north central France. It is located north of Rambouillet. The name comes from Amaury I de Montfort, the first ''seigneur'' (lord) of Montfort. Geogra ...

, in the Department of

Yvelines Yvelines () is a department in the western part of the Île-de-France region in Northern France. In 2019, it had a population of 1,448,207.Louise Elisabeth de Croÿ-Havré, marquise de Tourzel, the governess of the royal '' enfants de France'' of

Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...

and Marie Antoinette.

History

The Château was purchased in 1938-39 by the Spanish

aesthete Aestheticism (also the Aesthetic movement) was an art movement in the late 19th century which privileged the aesthetic value of literature, music and the arts over their socio-political functions. According to Aestheticism, art should be pr ...

Carlos de Beistegui Carlos de Beistegui e Yturbe (31 January 1895 – 17 January 1970),''England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858–1966, 1973–1995'' also known as Charlie de Beistegui, was an eccentric French-born Mex ...

, who enlarged it, with the professional help of

Emilio Terry Emilio Rene Terry y Sánchez (1890–1969), known as Emilio Terry was a French architect, artist, interior decorator and landscape designer of Cuban-Irish ancestry. Creating furniture, tapestries and objets d'art, he was influenced by the château d ...

Cecil Beaton Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, (14 January 1904 – 18 January 1980) was a British fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, and interior designer, as well as an Oscar–winning stage and costume designer for films and the t ...

's inspiration for Henry Higgins' library in ''My Fair Lady'' was the library at Groussay. Beistegui created new gardens, inspired by the Anglo-Chinese gardens of the 18th century and by an 18th-century copper tent in the royal gardens of

Drottningholm Palace The Drottningholm Palace ( sv, Drottningholms slott) is the private residence of the Swedish royal family. Drottningholm is near the capital Stockholm. Built on the island Lovön (in Ekerö Municipality of Stockholm County), it is one of Sweden ...

in Sweden. They feature a Chinese pagoda, a labyrinth, a theater of verdure, a Tartar tent, and other follies. The Gardens are classified by the French government as one of the

Remarkable Gardens of France The Remarkable Gardens of France is intended to be a list and description, by region, of the more than three hundred gardens classified as ''"Jardins remarquables"'' by the Ministry of Culture and the Comité des Parcs et Jardins de Fr ...

. After Beistegui's death in 1970, the Château passed to his brother, and then his nephew, who sold it in 1999, realizing $26.5 million for the contents alone, many of which had come from another of Carlos de Beistegui's homes, the

Palazzo Labia Palazzo Labia is a baroque palace in Venice, Italy. Built in the 17th–18th century, it is one of the last great palazzi of Venice. Little known outside of Italy, it is most notable for the remarkable frescoed ballroom painted 1746–47 by Giova ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

. In 2012, it was sold again and the owner is Rubis International managed by Bekhzod Akhmedov.

Description of interior

The British MP and diarist

Henry Channon Sir Henry Channon (7 March 1897 – 7 October 1958), often known as Chips Channon, was an American-born British Conservative politician, author and diarist. Channon moved to England in 1920 and became strongly anti-American, feeling that Amer ...

stayed at Groussay as a guest of Beistegui in 1946. Channon (who was noted for the lavish elegance of his own town and country houses) described the Château as being plain and old fashioned. With the aim of 19th century restoration Beistegui had replaced modern bathrooms with Victorian style ones, hung bedrooms with

Balmoral tartan Tartan ( gd, breacan ) is a patterned cloth consisting of criss-crossed, horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Sc ...

s and installed stag heads. Channon did however acknowledge "the really remarkable library" as being "sumptuous and superb". The château and park of Groussay appeared in Marc Allégret's last film '' Le Bal du comte d'Orgel'' (1970).

Gallery

Image:Château de Groussay (Montfort-l'Amaury) - Pagode chinoise.JPG, Image:Groussay_Pagode_Chinoise.JPG, Image:Château de Groussay (Montfort-l'Amaury) - Pont palladien.JPG, Image:Groussay_Tente_Tatare_1.JPG, Image:Château de Groussay (Montfort-l'Amaury) - Tente tartare.JPG, Image:Groussay_Tente_Tatare_2.JPG, Image:Château de Groussay (Montfort-l'Amaury) - Parc.JPG, Image:Groussay_Colonne.JPG,

References

External links

Château de Groussay
- official site {{DEFAULTSORT:Grossay, Chateau de Châteaux in Yvelines Gardens in Yvelines Houses completed in 1815 Landscape design history