Château Mont-Royal
Encyclopedia
Château
A château is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor or a country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally—and still most frequently—in French-speaking regions...
in La Chapelle-en-Serval
La Chapelle-en-Serval
La Chapelle-en-Serval is a small town in northern France. It is designated municipally as a commune within the département of Oise.-References:*...
, Oise
Oise
Oise is a department in the north of France. It is named after the river Oise.-History:Oise is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
, built for Fernand Halphen
Fernand Halphen
Fernand Gustave Halphen was a French Jewish composer.Fernand Halphen was the son of Georges Halphen, a diamond merchant, and of Henriette Antonia Stern , who was from a family of bankers...
by the architect Guillaume Tronchet
Guillaume Tronchet
Guillaume Tronchet was a French architect.- Life :Guillaume Tronchet studied at the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris in the studio of Louis-Jules André, then in 1890 in that of Victor Laloux...
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It was to offer his wife a view which enchanted her, he said, that Fernand Halphen bought the house at la Chapelle-en-Serval, near Chantilly (Oise) and decided in 1908 to erect a country house in a wooded valley there, which became known as the Château Mont-Royal. After having rejected the project with the Anglo-Norman style of the architect René Sergent
René Sergent
René Sergent was a noted French architect.-Biography:Sergent was trained at the École spéciale d'architecture, where he concentrated on French architecture of the 18th century but also studied British contemporaries such as Robert Adam, then entered the architectural office of Ernest Sanson where...
, then the first project of a mediaeval style of the architect Guillaume Tronchet
Guillaume Tronchet
Guillaume Tronchet was a French architect.- Life :Guillaume Tronchet studied at the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris in the studio of Louis-Jules André, then in 1890 in that of Victor Laloux...
(drawings in the Musée d'Orsay), Halphen chose Tronchet's second plan, of a château celebrating hunting on the outside and music on the inside. Constructed from 1907 to 1911, the château (today transformed into a hotel) was a great architectural success. Under the façades, the bas-reliefs made by G. Gardet celebrate the pleasures of the hunt. The interior includes, notably, a theatre, a replica of that of the Opéra-Comique
Opéra-Comique
The Opéra-Comique is a Parisian opera company, which was founded around 1714 by some of the popular theatres of the Parisian fairs. In 1762 the company was merged with, and for a time took the name of its chief rival the Comédie-Italienne at the Hôtel de Bourgogne, and was also called the...
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