The Château de Saint-Cloud was 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. Now ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, built on a site overlooking the Seine at

Saint-Cloud Saint-Cloud () is a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France, from the centre of Paris. Like other communes of Hauts-de-Seine such as Marnes-la-Coquette, Neuilly-sur-Seine and Vaucresson, Saint-Cloud is one of France's wealthiest tow ...

in Hauts-de-Seine, about west of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. On the site of the former palace is the state-owned

Parc de Saint-Cloud The Parc de Saint-Cloud, officially the ''Domaine National de Saint-Cloud'', is a ''domaine national'' (national estate), located mostly within Saint-Cloud, in the Hauts-de-Seine department, near Paris, France. The park, which covers , was a natu ...

. The château was expanded by Phillipe of France, Duke of Orléans in the 17th century, and by Marie Antoinette in the 1780s. After occupation by

Napoleon I Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

and

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...

, it was destroyed in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War.

History

Hôtel d'Aulnay

The Hôtel d'Aulnay on the site was expanded into a château in the 16th century by the Gondi banking family. The Gondis stemmed from a family of Florentine

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

ers established at Lyon in the first years of the 16th century, who had arrived at the court of France in 1543 in the train of Catherine de' Medici. In the 1570s, the Queen offered Jérôme de Gondi a dwelling at Saint-Cloud, the ''Hôtel d'Aulnay'', which became the nucleus of the château with a right-angled wing that looked out on a terrace. The main front faced south, with a wing that terminated in a

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 ...

affording a handsome view over the Seine River. Henry III of France installed himself in this house in order to conduct the siege of Paris during the

Wars of Religion A religious war or a war of religion, sometimes also known as a holy war ( la, sanctum bellum), is a war which is primarily caused or justified by differences in religion. In the modern period, there are frequent debates over the extent to wh ...

. In 1589 he was assassinated there by the monk

Jacques Clément Jacques Clément (1567 – 1 August 1589) was a French conspirator and the assassin of King Henry III. He was born at Serbonnes, in today's Yonne ''département'', in Burgundy, and became a Dominican lay brother. During the French Wars of Re ...

17th century

After the death of Jérôme de Gondi in 1604, his son Jean-Baptiste II de Gondi sold the château to Jean de Bueil, Comte de Sancerre, who died shortly afterward. The château was bought back by

Jean-François de Gondi Jean-François de Gondi (1584 – 21 March 1654) was the first archbishop of Paris, from 1622 to 1654. He was the son of Albert de Gondi and Claude Catherine de Clermont. He was a member of the Gondi family, which had held the bishopric of Pari ...

, archbishop of Paris. His embellishment notably included gardens by Thomas Francine. After the death of Jean-François de Gondi in 1654, the château was inherited by Philippe-Emmanuel de Gondi and then by his nephew Henri de Gondi, known as the Duke of

Retz Retz is a town with a population of 4,168 in the Hollabrunn District in Lower Austria, Austria. Geography Retz is located in the north western Weinviertel in Lower Austria. The municipality's area covers 45,01 km². 11.83 percent of this ...

. The latter sold the property in 1655 to Barthélemy Hervart, a banker of German extraction who was ''intendant'' then ''surintendant des finances''. He enlarged the park to 12 hectares and did considerable rebuilding. He built a ''grande cascade'' (not the present one) in the park. Garden details that seem to be of this phase of Saint-Cloud were drawn by Israël Silvestre. It was built in the Italian style, with an invisibly flat roof and frescoed façades. Its gardens descended in a series of terraces to the Seine, with fountains at each level. On 8 October 1658, Hervart organised a sumptuous feast at Saint-Cloud in honour of the young

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 ...

, his brother, "Monsieur", Philippe of France, Duke of Orléans, their mother

Anne of Austria Anne of Austria (french: Anne d'Autriche, italic=no, es, Ana María Mauricia, italic=no; 22 September 1601 – 20 January 1666) was an infanta of Spain who became Queen of France as the wife of King Louis XIII from their marriage in 1615 un ...

and

Cardinal Mazarin Cardinal Jules Mazarin (, also , , ; 14 July 1602 – 9 March 1661), born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino () or Mazarini, was an Italian cardinal, diplomat and politician who served as the chief minister to the Kings of France Louis XIII and Louis X ...

. On 25 October, Monsieur bought the château and its grounds for 240,000 '' livres''. It appears that Mazarin pressed the sale, contributing to a policy of building a network of royal châteaux to the west of Paris and relieving the excessively enriched Hervart from the fate of

Nicolas Fouquet Nicolas Fouquet, marquis de Belle-Île, vicomte de Melun et Vaux (27 January 1615 – 23 March 1680) was the Superintendent of Finances in France from 1653 until 1661 under King Louis XIV. He had a glittering career, and acquired enormous wealth ...

, whose ''fête'' at

Vaux-le-Vicomte The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte (English: Palace of Vaux-le-Vicomte) is a Baroque French château located in Maincy, near Melun, southeast of Paris in the Seine-et-Marne department of Île-de-France. Built between 1658 and 1661 for Nicolas ...

precipitated his fall and imprisonment. Monsieur was engaged in building operations at Saint-Cloud until his death in 1701. The works were designed and constructed by his architect

Antoine Le Pautre Antoine Lepautre or Le Pautre (1621–1679) was a French architect and engraver. Born in Paris, he was the brother of the prolific and inventive designer-engraver Jean Lepautre. Antoine Lepautre has been called " "one of the most inventive archit ...

, who built the wings in 1677. The château as it was reconstructed for Monsieur took the form of a "U" open to the east, towards the Seine, with the Gondi château, which had faced south, integrated into its left wing. To the rear, a long

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 ...

formed a wing that prolonged the right wing of the court. The entrance avenue, bordered by dependencies, some of which survive, arrived on an angle from the bridge. Inside, the apartment of "Madame",

Princess Henrietta of England Henrietta Anne of England (16 June 1644 O.S. N.S.">New_Style.html" ;"title="6 June 1644 New Style">N.S.– 30 June 1670) was the youngest daughter of King Charles I of England and Queen Henrietta Maria. Fleeing England with her mother and ...

, in the left wing was decorated by Jean Nocret in 1660, and the 45-metre ''Galerie d'Apollon'', which occupied the whole of the right wing, was decorated with myths of

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...

Pierre Mignard Pierre Mignard or Pierre Mignard I (17 November 1612 – 30 May 1695), called "Mignard le Romain" to distinguish him from his brother Nicolas Mignard, was a French painter known for his religious and mythological scenes and portraits. He was ...

(finished in 1680). The last child of Philippe and Henrietta was born here in 1669 and named

Anne Marie d'Orléans Anne Marie d'Orléans (27 August 1669 – 26 August 1728) was Queen of Sardinia by marriage to Victor Amadeus II of Savoy. She served as regent of Savoy during the absence of her spouse in 1686 and during the War of the Spanish Succession. ...

. She was the maternal grandmother of

Louis XV of France Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (french: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reache ...

. The château was the site of the 1670 death of Princess Henrietta, for whose funeral

Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet Jacques-Bénigne Lignel Bossuet (; 27 September 1627 – 12 April 1704) was a French bishop and theologian, renowned for his sermons and other addresses. He has been considered by many to be one of the most brilliant orators of all time and a ma ...

composed the oration. In October 1677, five days of magnificent feasts in Louis XIV's honour inaugurated the new decorations and demonstrated the splendour of Monsieur's ménage. The Galerie was preceded and followed by a salon at either end, a measure to be taken up at Versailles, where Louis found himself outdone in the matter of magnificent galleries, both by his brother and by his mistress in the Château de Clagny, and set out in 1678 to build the ''Galerie'' at Versailles. Following Le Pautre's death in 1679, the work was continued by his executive assistant

Jean Girard Jean Girard (8 August 1696 – 23 February 1765) was a French organist, serpent player, and schoolmaster who was primarily active in Canada. He was one of the first professional musicians living and working in the city of Montreal. Born in Bour ...

, a master mason rather than a full-fledged architect, and perhaps by Thomas Gobert.

Jules Hardouin Mansart Jules Hardouin-Mansart (; 16 April 1646 – 11 May 1708) was a French Baroque architect and builder whose major work included the Place des Victoires (1684–1690); Place Vendôme (1690); the domed chapel of Les Invalides (1690), and the Grand ...

intervened towards the end of the century, designing a grand stair in the left wing in the manner of the Ambassadors' Staircase at Versailles. André Le Nôtre replanned the gardens, and the park took on the dimensions it retains today. The ''Grande Cascade'', constructed by Le Pautre in 1664-65, has survived. Hardouin-Mansart added the basin and the lowermost canal in 1698. A total of 156,000 ''livres'' is estimated to have been spent over the years.

18th century

Saint-Cloud descended in the family of Monsieur's heirs, the Dukes of Orléans, and remained in their hands for most of the 18th century. After protracted negotiations, the château de Saint-Cloud was bought in 1785 by

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 ...

for Marie Antoinette, who was convinced that the air there would be good for her children. Louis Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans, who had not visited the château since his

morganatic Morganatic marriage, sometimes called a left-handed marriage, is a marriage between people of unequal social rank, which in the context of royalty or other inherited title prevents the principal's position or privileges being passed to the spous ...

marriage with Madame de Montesson, was induced to part with it for 6,000,000 livres. After the sale of the palace was officially finished, Marie Antoinette set about transforming her new private home. She set to transforming Saint-Cloud in 1787-88 by her preferred architect

Richard Mique Richard Mique () (18 September 1728 – 8 July 1794) was a neoclassical French architect born in Lorraine. He is most remembered for his picturesque hamlet, the ''Hameau de la Reine'' — not particularly characteristic of his working style — f ...

, who enlarged the ''

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

'' and the adjacent half of the right wing; he rebuilt the garden front. Hardouin-Mansart's staircase was demolished in favour of new stone stairs leading into the state apartments. The château was at first refurnished from the ''Garde Meuble'' with furnishings collected from other royal residences, but soon furniture was commissioned for Saint-Cloud. Gilded chairs and marquetry commodes with gilt-bronze mounts in the richest Louis XVI style were being delivered to Saint-Cloud right up to the opening days of 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 ...

. In 1790, Saint-Cloud was the setting for the famous interview between Marie Antoinette and

Mirabeau Mirabeau may refer to: People and characters * Mirabeau B. Lamar (1798–1859), second President of the Republic of Texas French nobility * Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau (1715–1789), French physiocrat * Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, com ...

. The château was declared a ''bien national'' and emptied by the Revolutionary sales. The Saint-Cloud

was the setting for the

coup d'état A coup d'état (; French for 'stroke of state'), also known as a coup or overthrow, is a seizure and removal of a government and its powers. Typically, it is an illegal seizure of power by a political faction, politician, cult, rebel group, m ...

18 Brumaire The Coup d'état of 18 Brumaire brought Napoleon Bonaparte to power as First Consul of France. In the view of most historians, it ended the French Revolution and led to the Coronation of Napoleon as Emperor. This bloodless ''coup d'état'' over ...

(10 November 1799), in which the

Directoire The Directory (also called Directorate, ) was the governing five-member committee in the French First Republic from 2 November 1795 until 9 November 1799, when it was overthrown by Napoleon Bonaparte in the Coup of 18 Brumaire and replaced by ...

was suppressed and the

Consulat The Consulate (french: Le Consulat) was the top-level Government of France from the fall of the Directory in the coup of 18 Brumaire on 10 November 1799 until the start of the Napoleonic Empire on 18 May 1804. By extension, the term ''The Co ...

declared.

Napoléon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

was proclaimed

Emperor of the French Emperor of the French (French: ''Empereur des Français'') was the title of the monarch and supreme ruler of the First and the Second French Empires. Details A title and office used by the House of Bonaparte starting when Napoleon was procla ...

on 18 May 1804 at Saint-Cloud. Saint-Cloud was later used by the Emperor’s family and was their main seat along with the

Palais des Tuileries The Tuileries Palace (french: Palais des Tuileries, ) was a royal and imperial palace in Paris which stood on the right bank of the River Seine, directly in front of the Louvre. It was the usual Parisian residence of most French monarchs, ...

19th century

Napoleon made Saint-Cloud his preferred residence and transformed the ''Salon de Vénus'' to a throne room, which Saint-Cloud had naturally lacked, but neither he nor the occupants to follow did much more to Saint-Cloud than interior decoration. When the

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

ns captured it in 1814, they supposedly found Altdorfer's '' The Battle of Alexander at Issus'' hanging in the Emperor's bathroom. It was at Saint-Cloud once again, in Monsieur's ''Galerie d'Apollon'', that Napoléon III invested himself as Emperor of the French on 1 December 1852. During the

Second Empire Second Empire may refer to: * Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783 * Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) * Second French Empire (1852–1870) ** Second Empire architecture, an architectural styl ...

, Napoléon III and empress Eugénie held court at Saint-Cloud in the spring and the autumn. Napoléon III had the orangery demolished in 1862, and Eugénie transformed the bedroom of ''Madame'' into a salon in the

style. The castle was used during much of the nineteenth century to welcome members of European royal families. For example,

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

and Prince Albert stayed at Saint Cloud when they came to visit Paris for the first

Exposition Universelle (1855) The Exposition Universelle of 1855 was an International Exhibition held on the Champs-Élysées in Paris from 15 May to 15 November 1855. Its full official title was the Exposition Universelle des produits de l'Agriculture, de l'Industrie et des B ...

. At Saint-Cloud, Napoléon III declared war on

on 28 July 1870. The heights dominating Paris were occupied by the Prussians during the siege of Paris, who shelled Paris from the grounds of the château. Counter-fire from the French hit the building, and it caught fire and burned out on 13 October 1870. Much of its contents had been removed by Eugénie after war was declared. Saint-Cloud, château après 1870

The standing roofless walls were finally razed in 1891. The pediment of the château's right wing, one of the preserved parts of the building, was bought by

Ferdinand I of Bulgaria , image = Zar Ferdinand Bulgarien.jpg , caption = Ferdinand in 1912 , reign = 5 October 1908 – , coronation = , succession = Tsar of Bulgaria , predecessor = Himself as Prince , successor = Boris III , rei ...

and integrated in his palace

Euxinograd Euxinograd ( bg, Евксиноград , also transliterated as ''Evksinograd'') is a late 19th-century Bulgarian former royal summer palace and park on the Black Sea coast, north of downtown Varna. The palace is currently a governmental and ...

on the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

coast. Today, only a few outbuildings and its park of 460

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100- metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is ...

s remain, constituting the Domaine national de Saint-Cloud. It includes the garden ''à la française'' designed by Le Nôtre, Marie Antoinette's flower garden (where roses for the French state are grown), a garden ''à l'anglaise'' from the 1820s (the Trocadéro garden), ten fountains, and a viewpoint of Paris known as "la lanterne", because a lantern was lit there when Napoléon I was in residence. The

Pavillon de Breteuil The Pavillon de Breteuil is the headquarters of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM). The building lies in the southeastern section of the Parc de Saint-Cloud in Saint-Cloud, France, to the west of Paris. It is listed in France ...

in the park has been the home of the General Conference on Weights and Measures since 1875.

20th century

France crowning Art and Industry, 2009-09-03 016

The sculpture group France crowning Art and Industry was installed in the lower part of the park in 1900. Many thousands of trees in the park were knocked down or badly damaged in a storm on 26 December 1999, but restoration work continues.

21st century

The park has been the venue for the

Rock en Seine Rock en Seine () is a three-day rock music festival, held at Domaine National de Saint-Cloud, the Château de Saint-Cloud's park, west of Paris, inside the garden designed by André Le Nôtre. Name The name is a pun, based on exactly the sam ...

festival since 2003.

Rebuilding the Château de Saint-Cloud

Since December 2006 there has been a movement to reconstruct the château de Saint-Cloud, chiefly led by an association and aiming at a primarily privately financed project rather than a government one. The association, "Reconstruisons Saint-Cloud !" or "Reconstruct Saint-Cloud !", was created in 2006 and aims to fund the rebuilding by imposing a fee on visitors. Image:Painting of Philippe of France, Duke of Orléans by Corneille the Elder (Versailles).jpg, Philippe of France Image:Portrait of Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans in armour by Jean-Baptiste Santerre.png, Philippe d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans, "Regent of France" Image:Marie Antoinette with decadent hair.jpg, Marie Antoinette Image:1841 portrait painting of Louis Philippe I (King of the French) by Winterhalter.jpg, Louis Philippe I, King of the French

References

* Fiske Kimball, ''Creation of the Rococo,'' (Philadelphia Museum of Art) 1943.

External links

Official site of the Domaine National de Saint-Cloud

Reconstruisons Saint-Cloud !

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chateau De Saint-Cloud

Palaces and residences of Napoleon Ancien Régime French architecture Baroque buildings in France Châteaux with formal gardens in France Gardens in Hauts-de-Seine 1572 establishments in France Monuments of the Centre des monuments nationaux