The Château de Maisons (now Château de Maisons-Laffitte ), designed by
François Mansart
François Mansart (; 23 January 1598 – 23 September 1666) was a French architect credited with introducing classicism into the Baroque architecture of France. The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' identifies him as the most accomplished of 17th-c ...
from 1630 to 1651, is a prime example of
French Baroque architecture
French Baroque architecture, usually called French classicism, was a style of architecture during the reigns of Louis XIII (1610–1643), Louis XIV (1643–1715) and Louis XV (1715–1774). It was preceded by French Renaissance architecture and ...
and a reference point in the history of
French architecture
French architecture consists of architectural styles that either originated in France or elsewhere and were developed within the territories of France.
History
Gallo-Roman
The architecture of Ancient Rome at first adopted the external Gre ...
. The
château
A château (, ; plural: châteaux) is a manor house, or palace, 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 re ...
is located in
Maisons-Laffitte
Maisons-Laffitte () is a Communes of France, commune in the Yvelines Departments of France, department in the northern ÃŽle-de-France Regions of France, region of France. It is a part of the affluent outer suburbs of northwestern Paris, from its ...
, a northwestern suburb of
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, in the
department of
Yvelines
Yvelines () is a department in the western part of the ÃŽle-de-France region in Northern France. In 2019, it had a population of 1,448,207.[ÃŽle-de-France
The ÃŽle-de-France (; ; ) is the most populous of the eighteen regions of France, with an official estimated population of 12,271,794 residents on 1 January 2023. Centered on the capital Paris, it is located in the north-central part of the cou ...]
.
History
The Longueil family, long associated with the ''
Parlement of Paris
The ''Parlement'' of Paris () was the oldest ''parlement'' in the Kingdom of France, formed in the 14th century. Parlements were judicial, rather than legislative, bodies and were composed of magistrates. Though not representative bodies in the p ...
'', had been in possession of part of the
seigneurie of Maisons since 1460, and a full share since 1602. Beginning in 1630, and for the next decades,
René de Longueil, first president of the ''
Cour des aides'' and then ''
président à mortier
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
*President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film and television
*'' Præsidente ...
'' to the ''Parlement of Paris'', devoted the fortune inherited by his wife, Madeleine Boulenc de Crévecœur (who died in 1636), to the construction of a magnificent château. By 1649, he was able to spend the summer months in his new house, but works on the outbuildings continued after that date.
Louis XIV
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 ...
visited Maisons in April 1651.
The attribution to
François Mansart
François Mansart (; 23 January 1598 – 23 September 1666) was a French architect credited with introducing classicism into the Baroque architecture of France. The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' identifies him as the most accomplished of 17th-c ...
was common knowledge among contemporaries.
Charles Perrault
Charles Perrault ( , , ; 12 January 162816 May 1703) was a French author and member of the Académie Française. He laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from earlier folk tales, published in his ...
reported its reputation: "The château of Maisons, of which he
ansarthad made all the buildings and all the gardens, is of such a singular beauty that there is not a curious foreigner who does not go there to see it, as one of the finest things that we have in France."
Nevertheless, the sole surviving document mentioning Mansart's name is a payment of 20,000 ''
livres
Livre may refer to:
Currency
* French livre, one of a number of obsolete units of currency of France
* Livre tournois, one particular obsolete unit of currency of France
* Livre parisis, another particular obsolete unit of currency of France
* F ...
'' from Longueil in 1657, apparently occasioned by the final completion of the château. A pamphlet with the title ''La Mansarade'' accused the architect of having realised, after completing the construction of the first floor, that he had committed an error in the plans and razed everything built so far in order to commence anew.
Perrault emphasizes that the architect had the habit of remodelling certain parts of his buildings more than once in a search for perfection.
After the death of René de Longueil, in 1677, the château passed to his heirs until 1732, and then in succession to the marquise de Belleforière, then to the marquis de
Soyécourt. In 1777, it became the property of King
Louis XVI
Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...
's brother,
Charles Philip, count of Artois, who carried out important interior transformations under the direction of his house architect
François-Joseph Bélanger
François-Joseph Bélanger (; 12 April 1744 – 1 May 1818) was a French architect and decorator working in the Neoclassicism, Neoclassic style.
Life
Born in Paris, Bélanger attended the Académie Royale d'Architecture (1764–1766) whe ...
. These works were interrupted in 1782 for lack of funds. Maisons then ceased to be kept up.
Confiscated during the
Revolution
In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...
as "national goods", the château was sold in 1798 to an army provisioner, M. Lauchère, resold in 1804 to ''
Marshal of the Empire
Marshal of the Empire () was a civil dignity during the First French Empire. It was established by on 18 May 1804 and to a large extent reinstated the formerly abolished title of Marshal of France. According to the ''Sénatus-consulte'', a Mar ...
''
Jean Lannes
Jean Lannes, 1st Duke of Montebello, Prince of Siewierz (; 10 April 1769 – 31 May 1809), was a French military commander and a Marshal of the Empire who served during both the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
He was one of Napol ...
, and then resold once again, in 1818, to the Parisian banker
Jacques Laffitte
Jacques Laffitte (24 October 1767 – 26 May 1844) was a leading French banker, governor of the Bank of France (1814–1820) and liberal member of the Chamber of Deputies during the Bourbon Restoration and July Monarchy. He was an important fi ...
. Starting in 1834, Lafitte proceeded to develop the surrounding park as building lots; he tore down the fine stables to furnish construction materials for the purchasers. After his daughter, the Princesse de la Moskowa, sold the château in 1850, it passed to M. Thomas de Colmar, and to the painter , who farmed out the small park and demolished the entrance gateway to the forecourt, enclosing the severely reduced space with a wrought-iron
grille brought from the
Château de Mailly
A château (, ; plural: châteaux) is a manor house, or palace, 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 reg ...
in
Picardy
Picardy (; Picard language, Picard and , , ) is a historical and cultural territory and a former regions of France, administrative region located in northern France. The first mentions of this province date back to the Middle Ages: it gained it ...
. Grommé died in 1900. In his last will, he ordered his whole property to the city of
Viipuri, which decided to keep his art collection but sell the château.
In 1905, the State purchased the château to save it from demolition. It was classed as a ''
monument historique
() is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which national heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a collection of buildings, ...
'' in 1914.
Architecture

The Château de Maisons was built between the
Seine
The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...
and the forest of
Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Saint-Germain-en-Laye () is a Communes of France, commune in the Yvelines Departments of France, department in the ÃŽle-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris. ...
, with its garden front oriented to the southeast. Originally it comprised the garden, a small park of and a large outer park of . The visitor arrived by one of two
avenues that crossed in a T intersection before the gate to the ''
cour d'honneur
A court of honor ( ; ) is the principal and formal approach and forecourt of a large building. It is usually defined by two secondary wings projecting forward from the main central block ('' corps de logis''), sometimes with a fourth side, co ...
''. The principal central axis led to the forest, the cross axis through the village to the southwest and to the river, thence on to Paris. Three gateways stood at the far ends of the avenues.
On either side of the ''
avant-cour'', Mansart constructed the stables, masterworks of architecture whose monumental character gave a preview of those that would be built at
Versailles
The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of ÃŽle-de-France, ÃŽle-de-France region in Franc ...
and
Chantilly
Chantilly may refer to:
Places
France
*Chantilly, Oise, a city
** US Chantilly, a football club
*Château de Chantilly
United States
* Chantilly, Missouri, an unincorporated community
* Chantilly (Charlotte neighborhood), North Carolina ...
. Of these works, there remains only a
grotto
A grotto or grot is a natural or artificial cave or covered recess.
Naturally occurring grottoes are often small caves near water that are usually flooded or often flooded at high tide.
Sometimes, artificial grottoes are used as garden fea ...
, which had served also to water the horses.
The château stood on a rectangular platform outlined in the French manner with a dry
moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch dug around a castle, fortification, building, or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. Moats can be dry or filled with water. In some places, moats evolved into more extensive water d ...
. The ''cour d'honneur'' was defined by terraces. The central block extends symmetrically into short wings, composed of several sections, each with its own roofline, with raked roofs and tall chimney stacks, in several ranges, with a broken façade reminiscent of the planning in work of
Pierre Lescot and
Philibert Delorme in the preceding century. The single pile construction, typical of its
epoch
In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured.
The moment of epoch is usually decided b ...
, carries three storeys, a basement supporting a ground floor, and ''
piano nobile
( Italian for "noble floor" or "noble level", also sometimes referred to by the corresponding French term, ) is the architectural term for the principal floor of a '' palazzo''. This floor contains the main reception and bedrooms of the house ...
'' with three attic floors above.
Interiors
The grand central entrance
vestibule of stone was originally enclosed by exceptionally fine wrought-iron grilles, which are today at the
Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...
. Large
bas-reliefs
Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...
of The Seasons were executed by
Gilles Guérin after drawings provided by
Jacques Sarazin, who oversaw all the sculpture provided for Maisons. There are
lunette
A lunette (French ''lunette'', 'little moon') is a crescent- or half-moon–shaped or semi-circular architectural space or feature, variously filled with sculpture, painted, glazed, filled with recessed masonry, or void.
A lunette may also be ...
s representing The Elements, for which Sarazin's drawings also survive. This vestibule gives onto two state apartments. The apartment on the left, called the Appartement des Captifs, was that of René de Longueuil; it has retained its original decor. The chimneypiece of the corner room, the ''chambre de parade'' represents a bas-relief medallion of
Louis XIII
Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown.
...
supported by captives and a
frieze
In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...
of the triumph of Louis XIII, works of
Gilles Guérin that have given a name to the suite of rooms.
The apartment on the right, called the Appartement de la Renommée, was entirely redecorated by
Bélanger
Bélanger is a French surname, popular in Canada. Notable people with the name include:
A-F
* Alain Bélanger (born 1956), Canadian ice hockey player
* Alexis Bélanger (1808–1868), Roman Catholic priest and missionary
* Amable Bélanger ( ...
for the comte d'Artois, in a discreet
neoclassical style
Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassici ...
quite in keeping with the general classic style of the château.
The staircase was of a type that Mansart originated at the
Château de Balleroy, in which the central space is left open so that the flights climb the four walls.
File:Main vestibule Château de Maisons n02.jpg, Main vestibule, viewed toward the stair hall in the right wing
File:Main vestibule Château de Maisons n03.jpg, Main vestibule ceiling
File:Château de Maisons - Escalier d'honneur, Rez-de-chaussée - Maisons-Laffitte - Médiathèque de l'architecture et du patrimoine - APMH00016575.jpg, Main staircase in 1890
File:ChateauDeMaisonsChambreDesCaptifs.JPG, Chambre des Captifs
File:ChateauDeMaisonsSalleAMangerDuComteDArtois.JPG, Appartement de la Renommée or Salle à Manger (dining room)
On the parade or main floor, the apartment to the right, called the Appartement des Aigles for the
Empire style
The Empire style (, ''style Empire'') is an early-nineteenth-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts, representing the second phase of Neoclassicism. It flourished between 1800 and 1815 duri ...
decoration effected by maréchal Lannes in expectation of the visit of
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...
, is undistinguished. The one to the left, on the other hand, the Appartement du Roi, is also called ''à l'italienne'' in that it is covered in false vaulting. The apartment consists of a vast Salle des Fêtes employed also in the character of a guardroom, with a
tribune
Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the Tribune of the Plebs, tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs ac ...
for musicians. It opens into the Salon d'Hercule from the painting of ''Hercules defeating the Hydra'' that used to be featured on the
chimneybreast, with sculptures by Guérin. In the end pavilion is a domed room articulated by therm figures, a precursor to the grand salon of
Vaux-le-Vicomte
The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte () or simply Vaux-le-Vicomte is a Baroque French château located in Maincy, near Melun, southeast of Paris in the Seine-et-Marne Departments of France, department of Île-de-France.
Built between 1658 and 1661 ...
. A small oval ''cabinet'', or private
withdrawing room, the Cabinet aux Miroirs (Mirror Room) bears a refined decor, and a
parquet
Parquet (; French for "a small compartment") is a geometric mosaic of wood pieces used for decorative effect in flooring.
Parquet patterns are often entirely geometrical and angular—squares, triangles, lozenges—but may contain curves. T ...
floor inlaid with pewter and bone.
File:Bedroom of Marshal Lannes Château de Maisons n01.jpg, Bedroom of maréchal Lannes
File:Château de Maisons-Laffitte - chambre du Roi 01.JPG, Bed alcove of the Chambre du Roi
File:ChateauDeMaisonsSalonDHercule.JPG, Fireplace in the Salon d'Hercule
File:Grande Salle château de Maisons.jpg, Salle des Fêtes, looking towards the fireplace
File:ChateauDeMaisonsLaGrandeSalle.jpg, Salle des Fêtes, looking towards the musicians gallery
File:Château de Maisons-Laffitte - cabinet aux miroirs 01.JPG, Cabinet aux Miroirs
File:Flooring Mirror Room Château de Maisons.jpg, Floor of the Cabinet aux Miroirs
File:Château de Maisons-Laffitte - cabinet aux miroirs 03.JPG, Ceiling of the Cabinet aux Miroirs
Influence on architecture
*The , at
Saint-Martin-du-Tertre (Val-d'Oise), built by
Gabriel-Hippolyte Destailleur for the duc de Massa in 1876, takes Maisons for its model.
*In the suburbs of
Beijing
Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
, the Chinese multi-millionaire real-estate developer
Zhang Yuchen built a copy of the Château, enhancing it by adding two wings from the
Palace of Fontainebleau
Palace of Fontainebleau ( , ; ), located southeast of the center of Paris, in the commune of Fontainebleau, is one of the largest French royal châteaux. It served as a hunting lodge and summer residence for many of the List of French monarchs ...
. The building cost $50 million, contains a hotel and seminar center, and opened in 2004. It is called Zhang-Laffitte.
()
*The
Constitución Railway Station
Constitución railway station () is a large railway station in Constitución, Buenos Aires, Constitución, a in central Buenos Aires, Argentina. The full official name of the station is (in English: Constitution Square Station) reflecting the fa ...
in Buenos Aires, Argentina, opened on 1 January 1887 and was rebuilt in 1900.
See also
*
List of Baroque residences
*
History of early modern period domes
Domes built in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries relied primarily on empirical techniques and oral traditions rather than the architectural treatises of the time, but the study of dome structures changed radically due to developments in mathemat ...
Notes
References
* Claude Mignot, ''Le Château de Maisons'', Editions du patrimoine, coll. "Itinéraire du patrimoine", 1998.
* Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos (dir.), ''Le guide du patrimoine, Ile-de-France,'' Hachette, 1992.
* Charles Perrault, ''Les hommes illustres...'', Antoine Dezallier, 1696
Viewat
Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...
.
Amis du Château de Maisons-LafitteFull history, plans, photographs, details
maisons laffitteLittle History and some pictures
External links
Château de Maisons- official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maisons, Chateau de
Houses completed in 1651
Châteaux in Yvelines
Palaces in France
Historic house museums in ÃŽle-de-France
Museums in Yvelines
1651 establishments in France
Monuments of the Centre des monuments nationaux
Charles X of France