The Château de Petit-Bourg is located in Évry-sur-Seine (

Essonne Essonne () is a department of France in the southern Île-de-France region. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659 across 194 communes.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 plate ...

, overlooking the

Forêt de Sénart The Chablis region of Burgundy is classified according to four tiers of ''Appellation d'origine contrôlée'' (AOC) designation. The top two are the crus of Chablis and include the 7 Grand cru vineyards followed by the lower Premier crus. Wines ...

, began in the 17th century for André Courtin, Canon of Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris and was completed about 1635 for Jean Galland. Around 1650, Monseigneur Louis Barber de La Rivière,

Bishop of Langres The Roman Catholic Diocese of Langres (Latin: ''Dioecesis Lingonensis''; French: ''Diocèse de Langres'') is a Roman Catholic diocese comprising the ''département'' of Haute-Marne in France. The diocese is now a suffragan in ecclesiastical p ...

, had gardens designed by François Mansart.

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 ...

would have worked there about 1662. Near 1695, Françoise-Athénaïs, marquise de Montespan acquired the Château de Petit-Bourg. There, she realized important alteration work and charged

André Le Nôtre André Le Nôtre (; 12 March 1613 – 15 September 1700), originally rendered as André Le Nostre, was a French landscape architect and the principal gardener of King Louis XIV of France , house = Bourbon , father = Lo ...

with designing the gardens ''à la françaises'', and staged in terraces. She took refuge there after her disgrace. With her death in 1707, her son

Louis Antoine de Pardaillan de Gondrin Louis Antoine de Pardaillan (5 September 1664 – 2 November 1736) was a French nobleman, marquis of Antin, Gondrin and Montespan, and first Duke of Antin. Biography The legitimate son of Louis Henri de Pardaillan, ''marquis of Montespan'', a ...

, inherited the château and remade the gardens. Between 1716 and 1722, he undertook to entirely rebuild with the architect Pierre Cailleteau dit Lassurance. The new Château de Petit-Bourg was a truly princely residence, the masterpiece of Lassurance. The best decorators of the time had worked there. One particularly noticed the cabinet in gallery of the appartement du roi (angle du pavillon du midi, à l'étage) and the grand salon, decorated by

Louis-Claude Vassé Louis Claude Vassé (1717 in Paris – 1772) was a French sculptor. He was the son and grandson of sculptors and a pupil of Edmé Bouchardon. He won the Prix de Rome and later became a member of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculptur ...

with royal portraits and ducal emblems. Before the reconstruction of the château, the duc d'Antin received

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 Ve ...

and, in 1717, the tsar

Peter I Peter I may refer to: Religious hierarchs * Saint Peter (c. 1 AD – c. 64–88 AD), a.k.a. Simon Peter, Simeon, or Simon, apostle of Jesus * Pope Peter I of Alexandria (died 311), revered as a saint * Peter I of Armenia (died 1058), Catholicos ...

in Petit-Bourg. After the reconstruction,

Louis XV 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 reached ...

and the queen

Maria Leszczyńska Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial * 170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 * Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, ...

stayed there frequently.

Mme de Pompadour Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de Pompadour (, ; 29 December 1721 – 15 April 1764), commonly known as Madame de Pompadour, was a member of the French court. She was the official chief mistress of King Louis XV from 1745 to 1751, and re ...

saw it while living in Étiolles - before being raised by the royal favour, and dreamed of this splendid residence. After the death of the duc d'Antin, the château remained empty for several years. When acquired by Marie Jacomel in 1750, widow of Louis Chauvelin, '' président à mortier'' at the

Parlement A ''parlement'' (), under the French Ancien Régime, was a provincial appellate court of the Kingdom of France. In 1789, France had 13 parlements, the oldest and most important of which was the Parlement of Paris. While both the modern Fr ...

, it was entirely demolished and replaced by a new château built in 1756 in the neoclassical style by the architect

Jean-Michel Chevotet Jean-Michel Chevotet (11 July 1698, Paris – 4 December 1772) was a French architect. He and Pierre Contant d'Ivry were among the most eminent Parisian architects of the day and designed in both the restrained French Rococo manner, known as the ...

. At the time of the Revolution, the château was the property of the duchess of Bourbon, Bathilde d'Orléans. After having passed through several hands, it was acquired in 1827 by the banker Alexandre Aguado, marquis de Las Marismas, who accommodated his friend there, the type-setter

Gioacchino Rossini Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards f ...

and was elected mayor of Évry-on-Seine in 1831. The creation of the railroad from Paris to Corbeil unfortunately divided the park in two and separated it from the Seine. Alexandre Aguado sold his property on 7 April 1840 to speculators who undertook to divide the property. The Germans occupied the château during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, and set fire to it in 1944, at their departure of Évry. The ruins were razed. At the site of the château was constructed the residence of the "Parc de Petit-Bourg". The aisle bordered with chestnut trees and limes along the residence houses was the ''allée d'honneur'' of the château.

Bibliography

* Michel Gallet, ''Les architectes parisiens du XVIIIe siècle'', Paris, Éditions Mengès, 1995, p. 284 – * Bruno Pons, « Le château du duc d'Antin, surintendant des Bâtiments du roi, à Petit-Bourg », ''Bulletin de la société de l'histoire de l'art français'', 1987 {{DEFAULTSORT:Chateau De Petit-Bourg

Petit-Bourg Petit-Bourg ( gcf, label=Antillean Creole, Tibou, ) is the seventh-largest commune in the French overseas department of Guadeloupe. It is located on the east side of the island of Basse-Terre, and is part of the metropolitan area of Pointe-à- ...