Castle of Chantilly

The castle of Chantilly is located at Chantilly (Oise), in a splendid site of the valley of the Nonette, affluent of the Oise. “ I did not still find anything of comparable with Chantilly around the capital , wrote in 1781 Louis-Sebastien Mercier. Thirty voyages in this magic place did not exhaust my admiration yet. It is more the good match which ever art and nature made. ”

Except for the “Small Castle”, built at the 16th century by Jean Bullant, the current castle is a rebuilding of the 19th century on plans of the architect Honore Daumet for the last wire of the king Louis-Philippe Ier, Henri of Orleans, duke of Aumale (1822-1897), heir to the field of Chantilly, which installed there its collections of paintings, drawings and old books. It bequeathed the unit to the Institut of France, under the name of Musée Cop.

The castle occupies the site of a medieval fortress. The large stables, built 1719 with 1740, are a chief of work of the architect Jean Aubert and shelter today the Musée living of the horse. The gardens are one of most remarkable creations of André Ours.

The town of Chantilly developed in the west of the castle during and after the French revolution.

History

Chantilly was initially an old fortress medieval, confined of seven turns and surrounded by water ditches, built on a marshy ground of the valley of the Little nun, who controlled the road of Paris with Senlis.

The castle belonged originally to Guy de Senlis, bouteiller of the king Louis VI at the end of the 11th century. The family takes the name of Bouteiller and preserves the castle until the 14th century. Plundered in 1358 by the Jacques, the fortress is sold in 1386 per Guy of Laval, heir to Bouteiller, with Pierre d' Orgemont, old chancellor of Charles V.

This one made rebuild the castle between 1386 and 1394. The family of Orgemont has the building during three generations with the {{XIVe}} and 15th centuries. In 1484, Pierre d' Orgemont, without child, bequeaths Chantilly to his nephew Guillaume de Montmorency († 1531).

The field of Montmorency

The powerful family of the Montmorency will have Chantilly of the {{XVe}} at the 17th centuries and made there complete important work of modernization.

It is the most famous member of this family, the constable Anne de Montmorency (1492-1567), which makes renovate the fortress by Pierre Chambiges in 1528 and, in 1551, to build the Harbor office, or Small Castle, by the architect Jean Bullant, who had worked in his Château of Écouen. It also makes arrange in 1538 the terrace on which its equestrian statue is drawn up (fondue under the Revolution, she is replaced today by a work of Paul Dubois, 1886) and to build seven vaults of which three were preserved. It is also him which makes trace the first gardens.

Henri Ier de Montmorency makes build in the high part of the park the Maison of Sylvie who remains today, though altered. Intended to receive Henri IV, this small house was the refuge of the duchess of Montmorency, called “Sylvie” by the poet Theophilus de Viau († 1626), who spent there the last months of his life under the protection of Henri II of Montmorency.

In revolt against the royal authority, Henri II of Montmorency is carried out with Toulouse in 1632. Its goods are confiscated by Louis XIII which restores the major part with his/her sisters but preserves of it however Chantilly, which interests it from the hunting point of view. In 1643, Anne of Austria restores the field with the last of the sisters of Henri II of Montmorency, Charlotte de Montmorency, woman of Henri II of Bourbon-Cop, from which the son Louis II of Bourbon-Cop came to gain the Bataille of Rocroi. Chantilly passes thus to the Maison of Cop, connects junior by the Maison of Bourbon.

The field of the Cop

With the {{XVIIe}} and 18th centuries, the fate of Chantilly is identified with that of the Condé whose field constitutes the principal property.

Chantilly at the time of the Large Cop

Louis II of Bourbon-Cop (1621 - 1686), known as the “Large Cop”, having taken party against Mazarin during the Sling, is made confiscate Chantilly in 1652 and the field only in 1659 recovers (Paix of the Pyrenees). Moved away from Versailles, it devotes all its care to its field. It makes draw the park by André Ours, which did not work yet with Versailles. It channels the Little nun to create the Large Channel (1671 - 1673), draws the French floors in the north of the castle, makes build by Daniel Gittard the Great Degree, and creates the current prospect energy for the grid of honor to the terrace.

The Large Cop receives in Chantilly of the writers like the Fountain, the Heather, Bossuet, M {{me}} of Fayette, M {{me}} of Sévigné: in their honor, the two parallel alleys, which frame the floors of Ours, take the name of “alleys of the philosophers”. One gives to Chantilly splendid festivals. Molière creates there Invaluable ridiculous the in 1659 and plays Tartuffe there. Under the direction of the famous Master of hotel François Vatel, the expensive one is refined there: it is at that time that one would have invented the Whipped cream there.

In April 1671, the Large Cop seals his reconciliation with Louis XIV by receiving it in Chantilly. According to Mrs. de Sévigné, it is on this occasion that Vatel would have committed suicide while not seeing arriving the awaited fish delivery (the authenticity of the anecdote is generally held for very doubtful).

Embellishments of the 18th century

The son of the Large Cop, Henri Jules de Bourbon-Cop (1643 - 1709), known as “Cop Fol”, makes modernize the castle by Jules Hardouin-Mansart. Work is completed by Jean Aubert. Of 1723 with 1726, this last also builds for Louis IV Henri de Bourbon-Cop (1692 - 1740), known as “Mister the Duke”, exceptional Grandes Stables. Principal minister of Louis XV of 1723 with 1725, Mister the affectionate Duke Chantilly (where it is exiled besides in 1726): it makes decorate the apartments with the Small Castle by Oudry, Desportes, Huet and Nattier, arranges a cabinet of natural history and creates the manufacture of porcelain of Chantilly.

Starting from 1720, Mister the Duke made arrange the wooded part located at the east of the castle and named “small park” or “park of Caboutière”. Caboutière was a building built at the time of Louis XIII to acclimatize the Dutch Tulipe, it with what a rich person amateur occupied itself, a Parisian lawyer of the name of Antoine Caboud.

Mister the Duke made trace an alley in direction of Caboutière, called “gone of the Quincunx” because it joined a quincunx planted behind this building. This alley formed a goose leg with the alley of the bridge of the King, located in the old axis of entry of the park (East-West) and the alley of the Vaillant door on the left. In the two sectors delimited by this goose leg rooms of greenery connected by alleys in zigzag were arranged.

The avenue of right-hand side led to a wooded square where one built a giant Jeu of the goose, with its various stations - the bridge, the puit, the prison… - which was one of great attractions of the park of Chantilly between 1730 and 1770. Behind the house of Sylvie, one arranged other rooms of greenery and a small labyrinth, while a large labyrinth was built in the park of Sylvie, now separated from the field by feels Avilly. There remain nothing of all these embellishments.

The son of Mister the Duke, Louis V Joseph de Bourbon-Cop (1736 - 1818), builds Jeu de Paume in 1756 and, between 1769 and 1772, makes build by Jean-François Leroy the castle of Enghien, long building of traditional style located on the right grid of honor. In 1774, it makes draw a garden Anglo-Chinese, inaugurated the Easter Day 1775, and build a hamlet which will inspire Marie-Antoinette when she makes build the Hameau of the Queen to Trianon.

Revolutionary destruction

Louis V Joseph emigrates under the French revolution and Chantilly is confiscated like Bien national as of 1790. In 1792, the castle is invaded and plundered by a band of national guards. Devastated, the castle is used as prison under the Terreur.

In 1799, it is sold for the sum of 11 million in Assignat S (approximately 100.000 francs). The contractors, Damoye and Boulée, undertake at once to demolish it to recover construction materials. Only the Small Castle and the Large Stables, the contractors are saved being seen withdrawing the market before to have been able to destroy them.

The part of the park located at the west of the castle, which sheltered the dancing waters conceived by Ours and which made the admiration of the contemporaries, is parcelled out. Street names - as the street of the Cascades - recall the memory of it, as well as the house of Manse, which sheltered the hydraulic machine designed by the farmer general Jacques de Manse.

Occupied by the army, the Large Stables are saved destruction and miraculeusement are damaged very little. One just sends to the cast iron the statue and his fountain in the court of the kennels as well as the Fame which overhung the dome.

Under the Empire, Chantilly is included in the prerogative of Hortense de Beauharnais, which has in the vicinity the Château of Saint-Leu. When Louis V Joseph de Bourbon-Cop returns in possession of the field on its return of emigration in 1815, it is restricted to make make some summary repairs to put the castle out of water. He manages to repurchase part of the grounds, but he cannot reconstitute the park, from now on cut into two by the road of Chantilly with Vineuil-Saint-Firmin, created at the time revolutionist. To mask it, his/her son, Louis VI Henri de Bourbon-Cop, make treat the Western part of the park in garden with English, created between 1818 and 1820 by his architect Victor Dubois.

The field of the duke of Aumale

With died of the last of the Cop, Louis VI Henri de Bourbon-Cop, in 1830, it is Henri of Orleans, duke of Aumale (1822-1897), wire of the king Louis-Philippe Ier who inherits his immense fortune and, in particular, of the field of Chantilly. Arrasé on the level of the ground floor, the Large Castle has poor pace.

Under the Monarchy of July, the duke of Aumale projects rebuilding works which he does not manage to conclude. Indeed, after the fall of the Monarchy of July, it takes the way of the exile and resides of 1848 at 1870 at Twickenham, close to London. It gets busy to join together the collections which are today in Chantilly. It returns to France in 1871, widower and having lost his two sons.

Of 1876 with 1882, the duke of Aumale makes rebuild the castle on the old foundations, in the fields of the architect Honore Daumet. It accumulates admirable collections there. Without descent, it bequeaths this splendid unit to the Institut of France in 1886, which it thus justifies in its will: “ Wanting to preserve at France the field of Chantilly in his integrity, with his wood, his buildings and what they contain, trophies, tables, books, files, objets d'art, all this unit which forms like a monument complete and varied French art in all its branches and of the history of my fatherland at times of glory, I solved to entrust the deposit of it to a famous body which, without withdrawing from the inevitable transformations companies, escapes from the spirit from faction, as the too abrupt jolts, preserving its independence in the middle of the political fluctuations. ”

During the First World War, Chantilly was used as general headquarter with the marshal Joffre and sheltered several conferences between the Allies.

Structure

The Small Castle and the New Castle

Medieval fortress of Orgemont does not remain that the base of the turns. It is thus the Small Castle of the constable of Montmorency, built in 1551, which constitutes today the oldest part of the castle.

The Small Castle includes/understands, on the first floor, the large apartments. Those include/understand three rooms decorated at the 19th century (from of which the anteroom and the room of the guards), raised on the old water arm which separated the Small Castle and the Large Castle, as well as the apartment of princes de Condé decorated towards 1720 per Jean Aubert with superb skirtings (including/understanding the room of Mister the Duke, the cabinet of angle, the boudoir trimmed with a great singery of Christophe Huet, the gallery of the actions of Mister the Prince, and the living room of music).

The castle of the duke of Aumale “ which one represents today like a wonder, is one of the saddest specimens of the architecture of our time: one enters there by the second stage and one goes down there in the living rooms ” (Boni of Castellane).

Large Stables

The Large Stables were built by the architect Jean Aubert between 1719 and 1740. Long, they 186 meters are exceptional by their dimensions just like by their magnificence. The prince of Condé was so proud that he did not hesitate to receive to dine under the majestic cupola, high 28 meters, where soupèrent in particular Louis XV, the future Tsar Paul Ier and Frederic II of Prussia.

The stables could shelter 240 horses and 500 dogs, used for daily huntings in the forest of Chantilly. In 1982, the Musée living of the horse was installed there by Yves Bienaimé. In 2006, the stables were joined together with the castle by its Highness Karim Aga Khan IV within the framework of the Foundation for the Safeguard of the Domaine of Chantilly.

The park

The Forest of Chantilly, which extends on 6.310 hectares, fact integral part of the field.

The garden of Ours

Chantilly was the preferred creation of Ours. According to its practice, it structured the park around two perpendicular axes. The first, North-South, in the axis of the majestic terrace built by the constable of Montmorency, is perpendicular to the level lines and highlights the foothills of the site. The second, East-West, is occupied by the large channel along the valley.

Between the terrace and the large channel, in the north of the castle, Ours spared floors with the Frenchwoman. These floors are decorated basins and are decorated stone vases and statues, whose majority date from the 19th century and represent the famous characters related to the last rich person of the field. The floors were originally of trapezoidal form, which made them appear vaster by thwarting the prospect. This effect, of a very great refinement, was removed by the reconstitution of the 19th century, which gave them the shape of perfect rectangles. The vegetable embroideries were sumptuous: there remains about it of testimonys in the garden of the Birdcage (with the foot of the castle, west coast) like in the garden of the house of Sylvie (1671).

The floors of Ours are framed today of two landscape gardens which did not exist time of their creation. That which is in the east dates from the 18th century and is treated in rustic hamlet. That of the west east treated with English and goes back to first half of the 19th century.

On the other side of the large channel, the amphitheater of Vertugadin, prolonged by a lane, prolongs the axis of the floors through the forest.

The grid of honor is located in against-low compared to the castle and especially with the terrace. While arriving at the castle, this one masks the prospect, which is discovered blow very when the visitor reaches it: the effect is seizing.

The small park

The small park, also called park of Cabotière, is located on the calcareous plate which overhangs the valley since the floors to the large round. Space transition between the forest and the park, it is arranged by Ours which traces alleys and thickets there connecting it to the surrounding forest. Its Desgots nephew draws in 1679 there a Labyrinthe which will be destroyed towards 1770.

To the 18th century, Henri-Jules de Bourbon-Cop connects it to the terrace by throwing the bridge of the King over the dry ditch which marks the limit of the plate. This garden becomes then a space of entertainments and walks, punctuated of rooms of greenery, of which some are always visible, the such Room of Sanglier.

Towards 1738 or 1739, a giant Jeu of the goose, whose pawns were the players themselves, is arranged in the shape of a 2 km length spiral, whose certain elements remain still visible, like the bridge or the well, or certain numbered stone slabs appearing the boxes. Sails very about it near the visitors of the princes during a good part of the century, it voluntarily was levelled and levelled towards 1770, when the fashion had passed from there.

The Anglo-Chinese garden

In the east of the floors of Ours, the Anglo-Chinese garden arranged in the meadow in 1772 is punctuated of manufactures S with the turning of small ways curving in the middle of channels designed to be traversed in " pirogs". Some of these factories (the rock, small stone bridges) were conservées.

In 1774 a hamlet of approval was assistant there. The Hameau of Chantilly comprised seven rustic small houses of which five were preserved: living room, billiards, dining room, kitchen and mill. It was used as place of festivals and estival pleasures.

The English garden

Leant with the road of Chantilly with Vineuil-Saint-Firmin and Creil, the English Garden, drawn by the architect Victor Dubois in 1817, incorporates some vestiges of the installations of Ours (the island of Love, Fountains of Beauvais) integrated in the form of factories. The sinuous alleys spare interesting sights on the castle.

Only one of the factories introduced into the garden at the time of its creation remained so far: the Venus temple, recently restored by the Historic buildings.

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