Castle of Ferté-Vidame

The castle of Ferté-Vidame was located at Ferté-Vidame (Eure-et-Loir). There remains about it only one impressive ruin as well as the commun runs (“small castle”).

The castle of the Saint-Simon

A castle is attested with Ferté-Vidame as of 985. In 1374, the field is acquired by the family of Vendôme which makes rebuild the castle. This family holds the prestigious title of Vidame of Chartres.

It is this castle which is acquired on May 19th 1635 by Claude de Rouvroy, duke of Saint-Simon, favorite of Louis XIII.

Famous the memorialist, Louis de Rouvroy, duke of Saint-Simon, placed in this castle which preserved its medieval aspect of confined fortress of eight grosses towers, known by gouaches of Louis-Nicolas van Blarenberghe painted towards 1750, preserved at the museum of Boston. It wrote there most of its famous Mémoires . Towards 1718 - 1719, it made build the building of the stables (current “small castle”).

The castle of Jean-Joseph de Laborde

Louis de Rouvroy of Saint-Simon dies in 1755. The castle passes to its grand-daughter, Marie-Christian woman of Rouvroy of Saint-Simon de Ruffec, marries of Charles-Maurice de Grimaldi of Monaco, count de Valentinois. June 21st 1764, this one yields the castle and the 900 hectares of the field to the financier Jean-Joseph de Laborde. This one acquires, consequently occasion, the title of vidame of Chartres, attache to the property.

Laborde entrusts to the architect Antoine Matthieu Carpentier the care to entirely rebuild the castle, of which it preserves only part of the feudal keep, but made unrecognizable under the additions. The work, completed in 1771, lasts only three years, which is short to build an immense building of three stages, which included/understood, says one, 167 parts. The museum of preserve Dreux a rise.

The building is built out of bricks and stones, like the achievements of first half of the 17th century, but in an original style, which seems a kind of sublimation of the great classical architecture. The plan drew a very open trapezoid. The parts of reception were located not at the ground floor, as in the majority of the country houses, but on the first floor. The central house and the two houses located at the end of the two wings were covered with roofs in square domes. On the garden, the oval projection of the central body was obviously inspired by the Château of Be worth-the-Viscount. It contained an oval living room built on two levels and surmounted of one cupola which answered the lower cupolas capping the side houses. The old ditches had been transformed into turfed ditches.

Laborde spent with Ferté-Vidame the foolish sum of 14 million books. It accepted Louis XV there the future Joseph II of Austria and the duke of Choiseul.

The castle after Laborde

In 1783, constrained Louis XVI the duke of Penthièvre to yield its to him Castle of Rambouillet. N the other hand, Penthièvre, which has already vast domains in Normandy and in the Perche, requires Ferté-Vidame, which Laborde is constrained to sell to him on January 4th 1784 for 5.500.000 books. Laborde preserves only the title of vidame of Chartres, the pieces of furniture and objets d'art and the statues of the park, whose duke of Penthièvre does not want.

To died from the duke of Penthièvre in 1793, the field passes to his/her daughter, the duchess of Orleans. But, this one having emigrated, its goods are confiscated. Already ransacked by plunderers, the castle of Ferté-Vidame is sold on March 27th 1798 to the sior Cardot-Villers who, strongly involved in debt, recovers all the materials which can the being and ransacks the forest by cutting down 31.000 trees. Not managing to pay the price of its acquisition, it is deposed of its rights. The field is given on sale in June 1803, but it does not find taking and remains in the field of the State.

With the Restoration, it is restored with the duchess of Orleans. When this one dies, in 1826, the field passed to his/her oldest son Louis-Philippe, future king of the French. He reconstitutes the field, makes raise the enclosing wall, give in state the water parts, restore and increase the small castle. But the revolution of 1848 stops this restoration.

The goods of the family of Orleans are confiscated under Napoleon III. In 1872, the Fields sell Ferté-Vidame to the baron Leon Dordolot, who devotes himself to it to his passion of the hunt. He resells it in 1880 with a rich person stockbroker, Mr. Laurent. This last settles with the small castle, increases the field, undertakes work of restoration. In 1913, its heirs sell the castle and the park at the Forest Company of Brittany which exploits the forest until in 1921, before reselling the field with Mr. Carpentier, industrialist with Villers-Cotterêts. This one yields it in 1923 to Christian Vieljeux, who resells of it the greatest part at the Company Andre Citroen which installs its center of tests there. In 1945, the part remaining is sold with the Ministry for the Justice which installs the Reverend Courteous Père there, founder of Holy-Marie-Madeleine work, social rehabilitation held women of common right. Work ceases its activity in 1979, with the death of its founder. In 1991, the State yields the castle to the department of Eure-et-Loir, which undertakes work to make it available to the public.

External bonds

Site of Ferté-Vidame

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