The Château de Marly () was a French royal residence located in what is now
Marly-le-Roi, the
commune on the northern edge of the royal park. This was situated west of the palace and garden complex at Versailles. Marly-le-Roi is the town that developed to serve 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 ...
, which was demolished in 1806 after passing into private ownership and being used as a factory. The town is now a
bedroom community
A commuter town is a populated area that is primarily residential rather than commercial or industrial. Routine travel from home to work and back is called commuting, which is where the term comes from. A commuter town may be called by many o ...
for Paris.
At the Château of Marly,
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 ...
escaped from the formal rigors he was constructing 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 Île-de-France, Île-de-France region in Franc ...
. Small rooms meant less company, and simplified
protocol; courtiers, who fought among themselves for invitations to Marly, were housed in a revolutionary design of twelve
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 ...
s built in matching pairs flanking the central sheets of water, which were fed one from the other by formalized cascades (''illustration, right'').
After the
French Revolution, about 1800, the château was sold to a private owner. He demolished it in 1806 after his factory there failed. The
hydraulic "machine" that pumped water for Versailles was also demolished. Only the foundation of
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 Gra ...
's small château the ''pavillon du Roi'' remains at the top of the slope in Marly park.
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 ...
bought back the estate in 1807, and the park belongs to the state.
The French niche perfume house
Parfums de Marly was named after Château de Marly.
History
The works at Marly were begun in the spring of 1679, on 22 May, before Louis had moved his court permanently to Versailles. The king was looking for a retreat on well-wooded royal lands between Versailles and
Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Saint-Germain-en-Laye () is a Communes of France, commune in the Yvelines Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris. ...
that were well-watered and provided a grand view. Marly was chosen.
Robert Berger has demonstrated that the design of Marly was a full collaboration between
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 Gra ...
and the ''
Premier peintre du Roi''
Charles Le Brun
Charles Le Brun (; baptised 24 February 1619 – 12 February 1690) was a French Painting, painter, Physiognomy, physiognomist, Aesthetics, art theorist, and a director of several art schools of his time. He served as a court painter to Louis XIV, ...
, who were concurrently working on the
Hall of Mirrors
The Hall of Mirrors () is a grand Baroque architecture, Baroque style gallery and one of the most emblematic rooms in the royal Palace of Versailles near Paris, France. The grandiose ensemble of the hall and its adjoining salons was intended to ...
at Versailles. Mansart's elevations for the pavilions were to be frescoed to designs adapted from a suite that Le Brun had recently drawn. The frescoed exteriors of the otherwise somewhat severe buildings created a richly
Baroque
The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...
ensemble of feigned sculptures against draperies and hangings, with vases on feigned sculptural therms against the
piers— all in the somewhat eclectic Olympian symbolism that Le Brun and the King favoured everywhere at Versailles.
The decor of the pavillon du Roi featured
Apollo
Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...
, the Sun King's iconographic persona, and
Thetis
Thetis ( , or ; ) is a figure from Greek mythology with varying mythological roles. She mainly appears as a sea nymph, a goddess of water, and one of the 50 Nereids, daughters of the ancient sea god Nereus.
When described as a Nereid in Cl ...
. Other pavilions were dedicated to other Olympians, but also to
Hercules
Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.
The Romans adapted the Gr ...
, and to
Victory
The term victory (from ) originally applied to warfare, and denotes success achieved in personal duel, combat, after military operations in general or, by extension, in any competition. Success in a military campaign constitutes a strategic vi ...
,
Fame and
Abundance. Construction was completed by 1684, though the overcharged painted programmes were simplified and restrained in the execution.

The Sun King attended the opening of the completed hydraulic works in June 1684 and by 1686 development was sufficiently advanced for the King to stay there for the first time, with a selected entourage. The theme of Marly was that it was a simple
hunting lodge, just enough to accommodate the Royal Hunt. In 1688 the ''Grand Abreuvoir à chevaux'' was installed on the terrace, a mere "horse trough."
Throughout the rest of his life, Louis continued to embellish the wooded park, with wide straight rides, in which ladies or the infirm might follow the hunt, at some distance, in a carriage, and with more profligate waterworks than waterless Versailles could provide: the ''Rivière'' or ''Grande Cascade'' dates to 1697–1698. Versailles was provided with water from Marly.

The famous description of Marly in the memoirs of
Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon
Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, Grandee of Spain, GE (; 16 January 16752 March 1755), was a French soldier, diplomat, and memoirist. He was born in Paris at the Hôtel Selvois, 6 rue Taranne (demolished in 1876 to make way for the Boulevard ...
["...coloured by the author's severe animus toward Louis XIV" (Berger 1993:534 note).] were written in retrospect and, for the initiation of Marly, at second hand; when Saint-Simon wrote, in 1715, Marly's heyday was ending, with the death of Louis XIV that year. Louis' heirs found the north-facing slope made Marly damp and dreary, and rarely visited.
The "river" was filled in and grassed in 1728. 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 ...
the
marble horses by
Guillaume Coustou the Elder
Guillaume Coustou the Elder (; 29 November 1677, Lyon – 22 February 1746, Paris) was a French sculpture, sculptor of the Baroque and Louis XIV style. He was a royal sculptor for Louis XIV and Louis XV and became Director of the Académie ro ...
, the ''Chevaux de Marly'', were transported to Paris (1794), to flank the opening of the ''
Champs-Élysées
The Avenue des Champs-Élysées (, ; ) is an Avenue (landscape), avenue in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, long and wide, running between the Place de la Concorde in the east and the Place Charles de Gaulle in the west, where the Arc ...
'' in the soon-to-be-renamed ''
Place de la Concorde
The Place de la Concorde (; ) is a public square in Paris, France. Measuring in area, it is the largest square in the French capital. It is located in the city's eighth arrondissement, at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées.
It was the s ...
'' (they are now displayed in the ''
Musée du 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 ...
'', along with many other Marly sculptures).
In 1799/1800, Marly was sold to an industrialist, M. Sagniel, who installed machinery to spin cotton thread. When the factory failed in 1806, the château was demolished and its building materials sold, including the lead from its roof.
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 ...
bought back the estate the following year; the empty gardens and the surrounding woodland park still belong to the State.
Remains
At the end of the 19th century, several connoisseurs purchased leases on the individual ''garçonnières'', cleaned up the overgrowth, recovered some bruised and broken statuary and recreated small gardens among the ruins:
Alexandre Dumas, fils and the playwright and collector of 18th-century furnishings
Victorien Sardou.
The ''Cour Marly'' of 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 ...
museum was inaugurated in 1993. It contains mostly works of art from Marly, displayed on three levels.
The Marly ''machine''
Providing a sufficient water supply for the fountains at Versailles had been a problem from the outset. The construction of the Marly hydraulic ''machine'', actually located in
Bougival
Bougival () is a suburban commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in Northern France. It is located west from the centre of Paris, on the left bank of the River Seine, on the departmental border with Hauts-de-Seine. In ...
(where its inventor
Rennequin Sualem died in 1708), driven by the current of 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 ...
moving fourteen vast paddle wheels, was a miracle of modern
hydraulic engineering
Hydraulic engineering as a sub-discipline of civil engineering is concerned with the flow and conveyance of fluids, principally water and sewage. One feature of these systems is the extensive use of gravity as the motive force to cause the move ...
, perhaps the largest integrated machine of the 17th century.
It pumped water to a head of 100 meters into reservoirs at
Louveciennes
Louveciennes () is a Communes of France, commune in the Yvelines Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, between Versailles (city), V ...
(where
Madame du Barry
Jeanne Bécu, comtesse du Barry (; 28 August 1744 – 8 December 1793) was the last ''maîtresse-en-titre'' of King Louis XV of France. She was executed by guillotine during the French Revolution on accusations of treason—particularly being ...
had her
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 ...
in the 1760s). The water then flowed either to fill the cascade at Marly or drive the
fountains at Versailles — the latter, after passing through an elaborate underground network of reservoirs and
aqueducts. The machine could only deliver sufficient pressure to satisfy either Marly or Versailles, and invariably the King's demands received priority.
In the nineteenth century, various other pumps replaced the originals, and the last was taken out of service in 1967.
References
External links
Other state properties"La machine de Marly"(in English)
''The Ways of Men'' producer Eliot Gregory visits Sardou at Marly
" Château de Marly, lot pictures "(in French)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marly, Chateau de
Buildings and structures completed in 1684
Houses completed in the 17th century
Châteaux in Yvelines
Royal residences in France
Ancien Régime French architecture
Demolished buildings and structures in France
Gardens in Yvelines
Landscape design history
1684 establishments in France
Buildings and structures demolished in 1806