The Château de Condé is a private estate in
Condé-en-Brie,
Aisne
Aisne ( , ; ; ) is a French departments of France, department in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France. It is named after the river Aisne (river), Aisne. In 2020, it had a population of 529,374.
Geography
The department borders No ...
,
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, set in a park on the Champagne route 100 km from Paris.
The Château de Condé is a private estate, listed as a historic monument and inhabited year round. Its 17th and 18th century interiors were created by artists (
Watteau,
Boucher,
Oudry,
Servandoni and others) at the behest of the Princes of
Savoy
Savoy (; ) is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south and west and to the Aosta Vall ...
and then the
Marquis de la Faye. This château evokes part of France's history, through illustrious characters like the Condés, the Savoies,
Jean de La Fontaine
Jean de La Fontaine (, ; ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French Fable, fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''La Fontaine's Fables, Fables'', which provided a model for subs ...
,
Cardinal Richelieu
Armand Jean du Plessis, 1st Duke of Richelieu (9 September 1585 – 4 December 1642), commonly known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a Catholic Church in France, French Catholic prelate and statesman who had an outsized influence in civil and religi ...
,
Mazarin, not forgetting
Olympe
Olympe () () was an ancient city located in the territory of the Amantes (tribe), Amantes, between northern Epirus and southern Illyria in classical antiquity. It is located in modern day Mavrovë, Vlorë County, Albania.
History
...
and her suspect "powders". Highlights include the "
Watteau" wing and its recently discovered frescoes, Richelieu's bed chamber, the magnificent "
trompe-l'œil
; ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a Two-dimensional space, two-dimensional surface. , which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into perceiving p ...
" effects of Servandoni, the "little private apartments" and the outstanding drawing room decorated by
Oudry.
History
The village of
Condé-en-Brie has been inhabited since the time of pre-Roman civilisation. In 500 BC, the
Senones
The Senones or Senonii (Gaulish: "the ancient ones") were an ancient Gallic tribe dwelling in the Seine basin, around present-day Sens, during the Iron Age and the Roman period.
Part of the Senones settled in the Italian peninsula, where the ...
fought nearby a battle against the
Condrusi
The Condrusi were an ancient Belgic- Germanic tribe dwelling in what is now eastern Belgium during the Gallic Wars (58–50 BC) and the Roman period. Their ethnic identity remains uncertain. Caesar described them as part of the Germani Cisrhena ...
. Traces of this presence have been found in the village and in the Château itself, which was probably a
Gallo-Roman
Gallo-Roman culture was a consequence of the Romanization (cultural), Romanization of Gauls under the rule of the Roman Empire in Roman Gaul. It was characterized by the Gaulish adoption or adaptation of Roman culture, Roman culture, language ...
land estate. As a matter of fact, an ancient pavement of Roman times exist under the present pavement of the Château.
The village derives its name from the confluence of two rivers, the
Surmelin and the
Dhuys, which merge before feeding the river
Marne: ''Condé'' derives from the
Celtic word ''condatum'', meaning "confluent".
The castle's history during the Middle Ages was closely linked to the
Coucy family. The first lord of Condé was
Jean de Montmirail
Jean de Montmirail (or Monte-Mirabili), Baron de Montmirail, O.S.B. Cist. (1165 – 29 September 1217), was a French nobleman who became a Cistercian monk. He is venerated as a '' beatus'' in the Catholic Church.
Life
John was the son of André ...
, whose son-in-law was
Enguerrand III, Lord of Coucy. It was he who constructed, at the end of the 12th century, a "keep", part of which is still to be seen, and which had 2 meters thick walls and towering chimneys.
The last heir of the House of Coucy,
Marie I de Coucy, Countess of Soissons
Marie I de Coucy (April 1366 – after 3 March 1405) was Dame de Coucy and d'Oisy, and Countess of Soissons from 1397. She succeeded suo jure to the title of Countess of Soissons upon the death of her father, Enguerrand VII de Coucy, on 18 Februa ...
, moved into the Château with her husband,
Henry of Bar
Henry of Bar (c. 1362 – October 1397, in Treviso, Italy) was lord of Marle, Aisne, Marle and the Marquis of Pont-à-Mousson, Marquis de Pont-à-Mousson. He was the eldest son of Robert I of Bar and Marie of Valois (1344-1404), Marie of Valois.
...
, in the 15th century. Condé was passed down through marriage to the
House of Luxembourg
The House of Luxembourg (; ; ) or Luxembourg dynasty was a royal family of the Holy Roman Empire in the Late Middle Ages, whose members between 1308 and 1437 ruled as kings of Germany and Holy Roman emperors as well as kings of Bohemia, List of r ...
, and in 1487,
Marie of Luxembourg married
Francis de Bourbon, Count of Vendôme. Due to this marriage, the family came into contact with the royal family. Their grandson,
Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, was the father of King
Henry IV of France
Henry IV (; 13 December 1553 – 14 May 1610), also known by the epithets Good King Henry (''le Bon Roi Henri'') or Henry the Great (''Henri le Grand''), was King of Navarre (as Henry III) from 1572 and King of France from 1589 to 16 ...
, and his brother,
Louis de Bourbon, was the first
Prince of Condé
A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. The f ...
, who frequently came to the Château de Condé to hunt, as a child.
Cardinal
Charles de Bourbon rebuilt the castle in
Renaissance style
Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of Ancient Greece, ancient Greek and ...
in the 16th century. The two gatehouses are the testimony of this time. The gatehouse on the right was inhabited by the Captain of the Castle; it still contains an underground jail with an exceptional locking system. The one on the left (now a barn) was the house-keeper's lodge. The castle was one of the strongholds of the Prince of Condé, who was chief of the Protestant party during the
French Wars of Religion
The French Wars of Religion were a series of civil wars between French Catholic Church, Catholics and Protestantism, Protestants (called Huguenots) from 1562 to 1598. Between two and four million people died from violence, famine or disease di ...
. His wife,
Eleonore de Roye, and her children often came here to get away from the troubles.
Up to 1624, the date of the marriage of
Marie de Bourbon, Countess of Soissons to
Thomas, Prince of Carignan (the present Italian royal family), the castle belonged to the
House of Condé
A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air c ...
. Unfortunately, it was badly damaged, from 1711 to 1719, by troops that were sent by King
Louis XIV of France
LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...
, who had it confiscated during the
Franco-Austrian War (the owner of the time being a cousin of an Austrian general). It was stayed in by the famous
Jeanne Baptiste d'Albert, ''comtesse de Verrue''.
The confiscated castle was bought in 1719 by a private secretary of King Louis XIV, whose name was
Jean-François Leriget, Marquis de la Faye. He was councillor to the King and a diplomat. It was he who was in charge of finding a wife to the young King
Louis XV of France
Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (), 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 reached maturity (then defi ...
.
The Marquis was a member of the
French Academy
French may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France
** French people, a nation and ethnic group
** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices
Arts and media
* The French (band), ...
, a director of the
French India Company, and accordingly, was a very rich man. In his mansion in Paris, he often received such famous people as
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778), known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' Voltaire (, ; ), was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, philosopher (''philosophe''), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit ...
and
Crébillon.
Much of the castle's final appearance is due to the Marquis' tastes. He brought to Condé, the talents of the Italian architect Servandoni, a master of the "deception" style, and one of the architects of the
Palazzo Farnese
Palazzo Farnese () or Farnese Palace is one of the most important High Renaissance palaces in Rome. Owned by the Italian Republic, it was given to the French government in 1936 for a period of 99 years, and currently serves as the French e ...
in
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
. He shut down the southern aisle, to allow the sun to penetrate into the rooms, and gave a symmetrical appearance to the other aisle. To achieve this, he was obliged to paint false windows in the medieval part of the Castle, the walls being 2 meters thick. For the interior decoration, he invited fashionable painters of the time -
Lemoyne, his disciple
Boucher,
Watteau and his disciple
Lancret, and last but not least,
Jean-Baptiste Oudry
Jean-Baptiste Oudry (; 17 March 1686 – 30 April 1755) was a French Rococo painter, engraver, and tapestry designer. He is particularly well known for his naturalistic pictures of animals and his hunt pieces depicting game. His son, Jacques-Cha ...
.
At a later date, the castle belonged to the Count de la Tour du Pin Lachaux, through his marriage with the niece of the Marquis de la Faye. In 1814, the Countess de Sade, the daughter-in-law of the famous
Marquis de Sade
Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade ( ; ; 2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814) was a French writer, libertine, political activist and nobleman best known for his libertine novels and imprisonment for sex crimes, blasphemy and pornography ...
, inherited Condé from her cousin, La Tour du Pin. Since this time and up to 1983, the castle remained the property of the Sade family, who restored it with much care after the two World Wars.
Restoration
In 1983, Alain Pasté de Rochefort purchased the chateau which had been for sale for many years. Here he did not feel a stranger since his ancestor Captain Pasté was in the 16th century one of the two captains of the first Prince of Condé's personal guard. He was restless and, with the help of the Administration of Historical Monuments, started a series of works: the roofs were repaired, including those of dependencies such as "''La Porterie''" and "''La Capitainerie''" as well as the 17 fireplaces, gutters and stonework. Restoration of the façades could then begin, along with the grand staircase or the small apartments whose woodwork and parquet needed to be partly dismantled. The Watteau wing, which had suffered in both wars, had its colours restored. Each room evokes Watteau and his followers (Lancret and Pater) who painted landscapes, "fêtes galantes", tales by Jean de la Fontaine painted on the walls. While some paintings were hidden (behind wallpaper or mirrors), they were later discovered after many years of restoration.
Gallery
Image:Chambre de Richelieu.jpg, Bedroom of Cardinal de Richelieu
Image:Chambre Olympe.jpg, Bedroom of Olympe
Image:Chambre Watteau.jpg, Bedroom of the Musician (detail of the Watteau wing)
Image:Escalier honneur.jpg, Escalier d'honneur
Book sources
* Glorieux, Guillaume, 2004: '' Le Château de Condé – Demeure des Princes''. Paris: Somogy. .
External links
Château de Condé official website
* Blandine Verlet plays Froberger on the original Ruckers Harpsichord formerly at the château before 1983.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Conde, Chateau de
Châteaux in Aisne
Monuments historiques of Aisne