The Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye () is a former
royal palace in the
commune 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. ...
, 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.[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 ...]
, France. Today, it houses the ''
Musée d'Archéologie nationale'' (National Museum of Archaeology).
History
12th–13th centuries
The first
castle
A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...
, named the ''Grand Châtelet'', was built on the site by
Louis VI in 1124. The castle was expanded by
Louis IX in the 1230s.
The Saint Louis chapel at the castle belongs to the
Rayonnant phase of
French Gothic architecture. A 1238 charter of Louis IX instituting a regular religious service at the chapel is the first mention of a chapel having been built at the royal castle. This was a ''Sainte Chapelle'', to house a relic of the
Crown of Thorns
According to the New Testament, a woven crown of thorns ( or ) was placed on the head of Jesus during the Passion of Jesus, events leading up to his crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion. It was one of the Arma Christi, instruments of the Passion, e ...
or the
True Cross
According to Christian tradition, the True Cross is the real instrument of Jesus' crucifixion, cross on which Jesus of Nazareth was Crucifixion of Jesus, crucified.
It is related by numerous historical accounts and Christian mythology, legends ...
. Its plan and architecture prefigure the major
Sainte-Chapelle
The Sainte-Chapelle (; ) is a royal chapel in the Gothic style, within the medieval Palais de la Cité, the residence of the Kings of France until the 14th century, on the Île de la Cité in the River Seine in Paris, France.
Construction b ...
which Louis built within the
Palais de la Cité at
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 ...
between 1240 and 1248. Both buildings were built by Louis's favourite architect
Pierre de Montreuil, who adapted the architectural formulae invented at Saint Germain for use in Paris. A single nave ends in a
chevet, with almost all the wall areas filled by tall narrow glass windows, between which are large exterior
buttresses. The
ogives of the vault rest on columns between the bays and the column bases are placed behind a low isolated arcade. The building can thus be open and empty of all internal supports. This large number of windows is also enabled by the ''pierre armée'' technique, with metal elements built into the structure of the walls to ensure the stones' stability. The west wall is adorned by a large Gothic
rose window
Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window'' wa ...
in the
Rayonnant Gothic style. It was in this chapel in 1238 that
Baldwin II of Constantinople presented Louis with the
relic of the crown of thorns and, though they were intended for the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, they were housed here until the Paris chapel was consecrated in April 1248.
The castle was burned by
Edward the Black Prince in 1346; of it, only the
Gothic chapel remains from the site's medieval phase. This ''Château Vieux'' was rebuilt by
Charles V in the 1360s on the old foundations.
16th–18th centuries
The oldest parts of the current château were reconstructed by
Francis I in 1539, and have subsequently been expanded several times. On 10 July 1547 a political rivalry came to a head in a legal
duel here. Against the odds,
Guy I de Chabot, 7th baron de
Jarnac triumphed over
François de Vivonne, seigneur de la Chasteigneraie, who died the next day after what was called "coup de Jarnac". In September 1548, rooms above the royal suite were refurbished for
Mary, Queen of Scots
Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was List of Scottish monarchs, Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567.
The only surviving legit ...
and the children of
Henry II of France.
Henry II built a separate
new château nearby, to designs by
Philibert de l'Orme. It stood at the crest of a slope, which was shaped, under the direction of
Étienne du Pérac into three massive descending terraces and narrower subsidiary mediating terraces, which were linked by divided symmetrical stairs and ramps and extended a single axis that finished at the edge 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 ...
; the design took many cues from the
Villa Lante
Villa Lante is a Mannerism, Mannerist garden of surprise in Bagnaia, Viterbo, Bagnaia, Viterbo, central Italy, attributed to Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola.
Villa Lante did not become well known until it passed to Ippolito Lante Montefeltro della Rov ...
at
Bagnaia. "Étienne du Pérac had spent a long time in Italy, and one manifestation of his interest in gardens of this type is his well-known view of the
Villa d'Este, engraved in 1573."
The gardens laid out at Saint-Germain-en-Laye were among a half-dozen gardens introducing the
Italian garden style to France that laid the groundwork for the
French formal garden. Unlike the
parterre
A ''parterre'' is a part of a formal garden constructed on a level substrate, consisting of symmetrical patterns, made up by plant beds, plats, low hedges or coloured gravels, which are separated and connected by paths. Typically it was the ...
s that were laid out in casual relation to existing châteaux, often on difficult sites originally selected for defensive reasons,
these new gardens extended the central axis of a symmetrical building façade in rigorously symmetrical axial designs of patterned parterres, gravel walks, fountains and basins, and formally planted
bosquets; they began the tradition that reached its apex after 1650 in the gardens of
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. He was the landscape architect who designed Gardens ...
. According to
Claude Mollet's ''Théâtre des plans et jardinage'' the parterres were laid out in 1595 for
Henry IV by
Claude Mollet, trained at Anet and the progenitor of a dynasty of royal gardeners. One of the parterre designs by Mollet at Saint-Germain-en-Laye was illustrated in
Olivier de Serres' (1600), but the ''Château Neuf'' and the whole of its spectacular series of terraces can be fully seen in an engraving after
Alexandre Francini, 1614.
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 ...
was born at the Château Neuf in 1638. One of du Pérac's retaining walls collapsed in 1660, and Louis undertook a renovation of the gardens in 1662. At his majority he established his court here in 1666, but he preferred the ''Château Vieux'': the ''Château Neuf'' was abandoned in the 1660s and demolished. From 1663 until 1682, when the King removed definitively to
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 ...
, the team that he inherited from the unfortunate
Nicolas Fouquet—
Louis Le Vau,
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
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. He was the landscape architect who designed Gardens ...
laboured to give the ancient pile a more suitable aspect.
The gardens were remade by André Le Nôtre from 1669 to 1673, and include a 2.4 kilometre long stone terrace which provides a view over the valley 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 ...
and, in the distance, Paris.
Louis XIV turned the château over to King
James II of England
James II and VII (14 October 1633 – 16 September 1701) was King of England and Monarchy of Ireland, Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II of England, Charles II, on 6 February 1 ...
after his exile from Britain in the
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution, also known as the Revolution of 1688, was the deposition of James II and VII, James II and VII in November 1688. He was replaced by his daughter Mary II, Mary II and her Dutch husband, William III of Orange ...
of 1688. King James lived in the château for thirteen years, and his daughter
Louise-Marie Stuart was born in exile here in 1692. King James lies buried in the nearby Church of
Saint-Germain; his wife
Mary of Modena remained at the château until her death in 1718. Their son
James left the château in 1716, ultimately settling in Rome. Many
Jacobites—supporters of the exiled Stuarts—remained at the château until the
French Revolution, leaving in 1793. The Jacobites often consisted of former members of the Jacobite court, and the apartments left empty in the château by the Jacobite court pensioners upon their death, were often passed down to their widows and children by the caretaker of the château,
Adrien Maurice de Noailles, 3rd Duke of Noailles.
The Jacobite colony at Saint-Germain was still dominant in the 1750s, when they were however treated with increasing hostility. After the death of the Duke of Noailles in 1766, who had been responsible for the continuing Jacobite dominance because of his preference to give rooms to Jacobites, the British dominance quickly decreased and more French inhabitants were given lodgings in the château: the last member of the Stuart court was Theresa O'Connel, who died in 1778.
The last descendants of the British Jacobites, by then mostly bearing French names, were evicted when the building was confiscated by the government during the French revolution in 1793.
19th–21st centuries
In the 19th century,
Napoleon I
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 ...
established his cavalry officers' training school here.
Napoleon III
Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...
initiated restoration of the castle by
Eugène Millet, starting in 1862. It became the ''Musée des Antiquités Nationales'' (National Museum of Antiquities) in 1867, displaying the archeological objects of France.
Auguste Lafollye took over responsibility for the restoration on Millet's death in 1879, continuing until 1889. His goal, and that of his successor
Honoré Daumet, was to restore the French Renaissance style of
Francis I.
On September 10, 1919 the
Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, ending hostilities between the
Allies of World War I
The Allies or the Entente (, ) was an international military coalition of countries led by the French Republic, the United Kingdom, the Russian Empire, the United States, the Kingdom of Italy, and the Empire of Japan against the Central Powers ...
and
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
, was signed at the château.
During the
German occupation (1940–44), the château served as the headquarters of the German Army in France.
The museum was renamed the ''
Musée d'Archéologie Nationale'' in 2005.
Ministerial decree no. 2005-698 of June 22, 2005
/ref> Its collections include finds from Paleolithic
The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic ( years ago) ( ), also called the Old Stone Age (), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tools, and which represents almost the entire period of human prehist ...
to Merovingian
The Merovingian dynasty () was the ruling family of the Franks from around the middle of the 5th century until Pepin the Short in 751. They first appear as "Kings of the Franks" in the Roman army of northern Gaul. By 509 they had united all the ...
times.
Gallery
File:Tulipes du château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye.jpg, The palace as seen from the gardens
File:Chateau.vieux.st.germain3.JPG, Angle view of the palace
File:Saint-Germain-en-Laye Château Vieux 2011 024.jpg, Details of the palace's façade
File:Saint-Germain-en-Laye Château Vieux 2011 079.jpg, The entrance of the palace
File:Saint-Germain-en-Laye Château Vieux 2011 081.jpg, The entrance of the museum
File:Château Vieux de Saint-Germain-en-Laye cour 1.JPG, The inner courtyard
File:Château Vieux de Saint-Germain-en-Laye escalier 1.JPG, One of the staircases
File:Château Vieux de Saint-Germain-en-Laye escalier 6.JPG, The inner ceilings
Notes
External links
*
French version
of page also includes the history of the Château)
The Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, National Museum of Archaeology
- The official website of France
{{coord, 48, 53, 53, N, 2, 05, 47, E, display=title, region:FR-J_type:landmark_source:dewiki
Buildings and structures completed in 1124
12th-century fortifications
Houses completed in 1539
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. ...
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. ...
Ancien Régime French architecture
Châteaux with Renaissance gardens in France
Châteaux with formal gardens in France
Renaissance architecture in France
Museums in Yvelines
1539 establishments in France
Réunion des Musées Nationaux
Tourist attractions in Yvelines
Francis I of France
James II of England
Mary of Modena
Saint-Germain-en-Laye