Château d'Arc-en-Barrois is a

château A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions. Nowaday ...

Haute-Marne Haute-Marne (; English: Upper Marne) is a department in the Grand Est region of Northeastern France. Named after the river Marne, its prefecture is Chaumont. In 2019, it had a population of 172,512.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 ...

History

The present château was built on the site of a castle that was destroyed in 1793 during 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 ...

. The

Arc-en-Barrois Arc-en-Barrois is a commune in the Haute-Marne department in the Grand Est region in northeastern France. The 18th-century French metallurgist and Encyclopédiste Étienne Jean Bouchu (1714–1773) died in Arc-en-Barrois. Geography The Aujon f ...

area belonged in 1622 to Nicolas de L'Hospital, Duke of Vitry; it was bought in 1679 from his son by Count Morstein who ceded it in 1693 to

Louis Alexandre, Count of Toulouse Louis Alexandre de Bourbon (6 June 1678 – 1 December 1737), a legitimated prince of the blood royal, was the son of Louis XIV and of his mistress Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan. At the age of five, he became grand admiral of ...

, whose son

Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, Duke of Penthièvre Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon (16 November 1725 – 4 March 1793) was the son of Louis Alexandre de Bourbon and his wife Marie Victoire de Noailles. He was therefore a grandson of Louis XIV of France and his mistress, Madame de Montespan. From ...

, inherited the estate. After the Revolution, in 1814 the estate was restored to the Duke of Penthièvre's daughter, Marie-Adélaïde de Bourbon, who in 1769 had married

Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (Louis Philippe Joseph; 13 April 17476 November 1793), was a major French noble who supported the French Revolution. Louis Philippe II was born at the Château de Saint-Cloud to Louis Philippe I, Duke of Char ...

. Their daughter

Princess Adélaïde of Orléans Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin ''princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince. Princess as a subst ...

inherited the estate and built the present château on the site of the old castle. In her will she left it to her godson,

François d'Orléans, Prince of Joinville François d'Orléans, Prince de Joinville (14 August 1818 – 16 June 1900) was the third son of Louis Philippe, King of the French, and his wife Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily. An admiral of the French Navy, François was famous for bri ...

. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

the château became the

Hôpital Temporaire d'Arc-en-Barrois Hôpital Temporaire d'Arc-en-Barrois was an emergency evacuation hospital serving the French 3rd Army Corps during World War I. It was organised and staffed by British volunteers and served French soldiers. History Hôpital Temporaire d'Arc-en-B ...

, an emergency evacuation hospital for injured soldiers from the French 3rd Army Corps.

Architecture

The present château was built around 1845. The fabric of the main building and the grand staircase date from the time when Nicolas de L'Hospital owned the castle in the seventeenth century, but the house underwent major changes in the 1840s when it was rebuilt by Adelaide of Orleans. The front part of the house and the English-style

landscape garden The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...

belong to this period. Furniture from the château may be marked ''feu: LB'' surmounted by a crown or ''ARC''.

Gallery

Image:Chateau Arc en Barrois 2.JPG, Entrrance front Image:Chateau Arc en Barrois 1.JPG, Garden front Image:Château d'arc en barrois by ch.JPG, The roof

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arc-en-Barrois Châteaux in Haute-Marne Houses completed in 1845