The château de Craon, also known as the château d'Haroué or palais d'Haroué is a French

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. No ...

located in a small valley in the centre of the village of Haroué, in the Saintois, in the département of

Meurthe-et-Moselle Meurthe-et-Moselle () is a department in the Grand Est region of France, named after the rivers Meurthe and Moselle. It had a population of 733,760 in 2019.Lorraine Lorraine , also , , ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; german: Lothringen ; lb, Loutrengen; nl, Lotharingen is a cultural and historical region in Northeastern France, now located in the administrative region of G ...

. It was built between 1720 and 1732 by

Germain Boffrand Germain Boffrand () (16 May 1667 – 19 March 1754) was a French architect. A pupil of Jules Hardouin-Mansart, Germain Boffrand was one of the main creators of the precursor to Rococo called the '' style Régence'', and in his interiors, of th ...

during the period when Lorraine was independent of France, for Marc de Beauvau, prince de Craon, viceroy of

Tuscany it, Toscano (man) it, Toscana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Citizenship , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = Italian , demogra ...

and constable of Lorraine. Surprisingly, the architect had to integrate into his plans the four towers and moat of an older medieval château, a consideration for medieval buildings which was unusual for the classicist period. Le château's design also symbolises a year : * 365 windows, * 52 fireplaces, * 12 towers (several included in the buildings), * 4 bridges crossing the moat. The decoration was largely entrusted to artists from Lorraine : Jean Lamour (1698–1771) for the gates, balconies and staircases, Pillement (1698–1771) for the painted decoration of one of the towers,

Barthélemy Guibal Dieudonné-Barthélemy Guibal was a French sculptor. He was born in Nîmes February 10, 1699, and died in Lunéville May 5, 1757. He created a number of sculptures for the garden of the Palace of Lunéville, which later came to Schwetzingen Palace ...

(1699–1757), sculptor of the fountains of

place Stanislas Place Stanislas is a large pedestrianised square in the French city of Nancy, in the Lorraine historic region. Built between 1752 and 1756 on the orders of Stanisław Leszczyński, the square is one of oldest examples of an architecturally cons ...

at Nancy, for the statuary. The park "à la française" was designed by

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 ...

. It has since been lived in by the descendants of Marc de Beauvau. The château was classified as a monument historique in 1983. Image:Chateau de Haroue 001.jpg Image:Chateau de Haroue 002.jpg

Notes

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haroue, Chateau Châteaux in Meurthe-et-Moselle Monuments historiques of Grand Est Gardens in Meurthe-et-Moselle Historic house museums in Grand Est Museums in Meurthe-et-Moselle