Castle of Cop

Photographs

, knew a less enviable fate then. In 1711, Louis XIV confiscated the goods of Savoy in France, to be undoubtedly avenged for the failures which the prince Eugene with the head of the Austrian armies had made him undergo. The castle put under sequestration, was militarily occupied of 1711 with 1719 and was in fort bad condition when it was bought by Jean-François Leriget of Faye.

Jean-François Leriget of Faye

This gifted man of many talents was at the same time a financier, a man of letters and a diplomat with the service of the king Louis XIV and Régent.

Administrator of the Company of the Indies, member of the French Academy, he was also chief of the royal Cabinet and particular adviser of the king. For this reason, he was operations manager important, inter alia, that to seek a wife for the young person Louis XV. Already owner in Paris of two hotels where it gave literary receptions, it wanted to enjoy a residence “of the fields” by transforming Condé with the mode of the 18th century.

He entrusted the realization of it to Servandoni, one of the architects of the Palais Farnèse with Rome, Master of trompe-l'oeil and specialist in the mobile stage set. This one gave to the castle its current aspect. It preserved only the three buildings surrounding the main courtyard. By removing the fourth wing which closed the court, it made there enter the sun. It remade the roofs and wanted to give to the frontage the symmetrical aspect with the last style, but it ran up against the part of the thirteenth century and the thickness of the walls obliged it to exert its talent of trompe-l'oeil by making blind windows on part of the frontage. It was also charged to decorate the interior. It replaced staircase Renaissance the stone by a vast main staircase emphasizing the toilets (modes vestimentary) of the time. It decorated itself the large central living room, devoted to the theater and the music. Its fabrics painted with the manner of the stage sets are tended on the four walls, reproducing in trompe-l'oeil of the statues of Girardon carried out for the park of Versailles and of the mythological scenes, copies of the frescos of the Farnèse palate.

The marquis of Faye, large collector of tables, obtained moreover the famous contest of painters of the time. Jean-Baptiste Oudry painted for another large living room four splendid paintings representing of the returns of hunting and fishing. The other parts were decorated by Watteau, Lancret, Lemoyne and their pupils. In spite of the destruction of the war of 1914, many are the paintings allotted to these schools. This work of decoration was continued by its nephew and heir, Jean-François II Lériget of Faye whose girl married the count of the Tower of the Pine Lachaux.

It is it which, with died his/her father, inherited the castle and of the grounds of Cop which belonged to this family until in 1814, date on which, by heritage, the countess of Sade, daughter-in-law of famous the marquis became owner about it.

The families Sade and Pasté of Rochefort

The Sade family had these places until in 1983. After the test of the two Great Wars, which damaged the castle seriously, it began the work of restoration always in progress.

The new owner, Alain Pasté of Rochefort is not completely foreign in Condé. Its ancestor the Pasté captain was at the 16th century one of the two captains of the private guard of first prince de Condé and undoubtedly remained on several occasions in Condé for this reason. He continues the work undertaken by his predecessors until his accidental disappearance the February 24th 1993. Since his helped wife of its children (Alice and Aymeri) the work of restoration continues. The tasks to be achieved are still numerous. It is in a spirit of continuity that the whole of work completed with Condé are carried out. The castle of Cop remains inhabited all the year.

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