Château de Maisons
Encyclopedia
The Château de Maisons designed by François Mansart
François Mansart
François Mansart was a French architect credited with introducing classicism into Baroque architecture of France...

 from 1630 to 1651, is a prime example of French baroque architecture
French Baroque architecture
French Baroque is a form of Baroque architecture that evolved in France during the reigns of Louis XIII , Louis XIV and Louis XV...

 and a reference point in the history of French architecture. The château
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...

 is located in Maisons-Laffitte
Maisons-Laffitte
Maisons-Laffitte is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region in north-central France. It is located in the north-western suburbs of Paris from the center....

, a northwestern suburb of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, in the department of Yvelines
Yvelines
Yvelines is a French department in the region of Île-de-France.-History:Yvelines was created from the western part of the defunct department of Seine-et-Oise on 1 January 1968 in accordance with a law passed on 10 January 1964 and a décret d'application from 26 February 1965.It gained the...

, Île-de-France
Île-de-France (région)
Île-de-France is the wealthiest and most populated of the twenty-two administrative regions of France, composed mostly of the Paris metropolitan area....

.

History

The family of Longueil, long associated with the Parlement de Paris, had been in possession of part of the seigneurie of Maisons since 1460, and a full share since 1602. Beginning in 1630, and for the next decades, René de Longueil
René de Longueil
thumb|René de Longueil, marquis de Maisons , le président de Maisons, was Surintendant des Finances under Louis XIII. He built the Château de Maisons....

, first president of the Cour des aides and then président à mortier to the Parlement de Paris, devoted the fortune inherited by his wife, Madeleine Boulenc de Crévecœur (who died in 1636), to the construction of a magnificent château
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...

. By 1649 he was able to spend the summer months in his new house, but works on the outbuildings continued after that date. Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...

 visited Maisons in April 1651.

The attribution to François Mansart was common knowledge among contemporaries. Charles Perrault
Charles Perrault
Charles Perrault was a French author who laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from pre-existing folk tales. The best known include Le Petit Chaperon rouge , Cendrillon , Le Chat Botté and La Barbe bleue...

 reported its reputation: "The château of Maisons, of which he [Mansart] had made all the buildings and all the gardens, is of such a singular beauty that there is not a curious foreigner who does not go there to see it, as one of the finest things that we have in France." Nevertheless, the sole surviving document mentioning Mansart's name is a payment of 20,000 livres from Longueil in 1657, apparently occasioned by the final completion of the château. A pamphlet with the title La Mansarade accuses the architect of having realised, after completing the construction of the first floor, that he had committed an error in the plans and razed everything built so far in order to commence anew.

Perrault emphasizes that the architect had the habit of remodeling certain parts of his buildings more than once, in a search for perfection. This may explain the extraordinary length of time the construction required.

At the death of René de Longueil, in 1677, the château passed to his heirs until 1732, and then in succession to the marquise de Belleforière, then to the marquis de Soyécourt. In 1777 it became the property of Louis XVI
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....

's brother the comte d'Artois
Charles X of France
Charles X was known for most of his life as the Comte d'Artois before he reigned as King of France and of Navarre from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. A younger brother to Kings Louis XVI and Louis XVIII, he supported the latter in exile and eventually succeeded him...

, who carried out important interior transformations under the direction of his house architect François-Joseph Bélanger
François-Joseph Bélanger
François-Joseph Bélanger was a French architect and decorator working in the Neoclassic style.Born in Paris, he studied at the Académie Royale d'Architecture where he worked under Julien-David Le Roy and Pierre Contant d'Ivry, but did not win the coveted Prix de Rome that would have sent him to...

. These works were interrupted in 1782 for lack of funds. Maisons ceased to be kept up.

Confiscated during the Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

 as "national goods", the château was sold in 1798 to an army provisioner, M. Lauchère, again in 1804 to maréchal Jean Lannes
Jean Lannes
Jean Lannes, 1st Duc de Montebello, was a Marshal of France. He was one of Napoleon's most daring and talented generals. Napoleon once commented on Lannes: "I found him a pygmy and left him a giant"...

, and finally in 1818, to the Parisian banker Jacques Lafitte. Starting in 1834, Lafitte proceeded to develop the surrounding park as building lots; he tore down the fine stables to furnish construction materials for the purchasers. After his daughter the princesse de la Moskowa sold the château in 1850, it passed to M. Thomas de Colmar, and to the painter Tilman Grommé, who farmed out the small park and demolished the entrance gateway to the forecourt, enclosing the severely reduced space with a wrought iron grille brought from the Château de Mailly in Picardy.

In 1905, the State purchased the château to save it from demolition. It was classed a monument historique in 1914.

Architecture

The Château de Maisons was built between the Seine
Seine
The Seine is a -long river and an important commercial waterway within the Paris Basin in the north of France. It rises at Saint-Seine near Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plateau, flowing through Paris and into the English Channel at Le Havre . It is navigable by ocean-going vessels...

 and the forest of Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Saint-Germain-en-Laye
Saint-Germain-en-Laye is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris from the centre.Inhabitants are called Saint-Germanois...

, with its garden front oriented to the southeast. Originally it comprised the garden, a small park of 33 hectares and a large outer park of 300 hectares. The visitor arrived by one of two avenues
Avenue (landscape)
__notoc__In landscaping, an avenue or allée is traditionally a straight route with a line of trees or large shrubs running along each, which is used, as its French source venir indicates, to emphasize the "coming to," or arrival at a landscape or architectural feature...

 that crossed in a T intersection before the gate to the cour d'honneur
Cour d'Honneur
Cour d'Honneur is the architectural term for defining a three-sided courtyard, created when the main central block, or corps de logis, is flanked by symmetrical advancing secondary wings, containing minor rooms...

The principal central axis led to the forest, the cross axis through the village to the southwest and to the river, thence on to Paris. Three gateways stood at the far ends of the avenues.

On one side and the other of the avant-cour, Mansart constructed the stables, masterworks of architecture whose monumental character gave a preview of those that would be built at Versailles and Chantilly. Of these works there exists only a grotto
Grotto
A grotto is any type of natural or artificial cave that is associated with modern, historic or prehistoric use by humans. When it is not an artificial garden feature, a grotto is often a small cave near water and often flooded or liable to flood at high tide...

, that served also to water the horses.

The château itself stood on a rectangular platform outlined in the French manner with a dry moat. The cour d'honneur was defined by terraces. The central block extends symmetrically into short wings, composed of several sections, each with its own roofline, with raked roofs and tall chimney stacks, in several ranges, with a broken façade reminiscent of the planning in work of Pierre Lescot
Pierre Lescot
Pierre Lescot was a French architect active during the French Renaissance, "the man who was first responsible for the implantation of pure and correct classical architecture in France." He was born in Paris....

 and Philibert Delorme in the preceding century. The single pile construction typical of its epoch carries three storeys, a basement supporting a ground floor and piano nobile
Piano nobile
The piano nobile is the principal floor of a large house, usually built in one of the styles of classical renaissance architecture...

with three attic floors above.

Interiors

The grand central entrance vestibule of stone was originally enclosed by exceptionally fine wrought iron grilles, which are today at the Louvre
Louvre
The Musée du Louvre – in English, the Louvre Museum or simply the Louvre – is one of the world's largest museums, the most visited art museum in the world and a historic monument. A central landmark of Paris, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement...

. Large bas-reliefs of The Seasons were executed by Gilles Guérin
Gilles Guérin
Gilles Guérin was a French sculptor of the second rank, providing tomb sculptures and decorative sculptures in interiors, in the Baroque idiom.-Notable works:...

 after drawings provided by Jacques Sarazin, who oversaw all the sculpture provided for Maisons. There are lunette
Lunette
In architecture, a lunette is a half-moon shaped space, either filled with recessed masonry or void. A lunette is formed when a horizontal cornice transects a round-headed arch at the level of the imposts, where the arch springs. If a door is set within a round-headed arch, the space within the...

s representing The Elements, for which Sarazin's drawings also survive. This vestibule gives onto two state apartments. The apartment on the left, called the Appartement des Captifs was that of René de Longueuil; it has retained its original decor. The chimneypiece of the corner room, the chambre de parade represents a bas-relief medallion of Louis XIII
Louis XIII of France
Louis XIII was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1610 to 1643.Louis was only eight years old when he succeeded his father. His mother, Marie de Medici, acted as regent during Louis' minority...

 supported by captives and a frieze of the triumph of Louis XIII, works of Gilles Guérin
Gilles Guérin
Gilles Guérin was a French sculptor of the second rank, providing tomb sculptures and decorative sculptures in interiors, in the Baroque idiom.-Notable works:...

 that have given a name to the suite of rooms.

The apartment on the right, called the Appartement de la Renommée was entirely redecorated by Bélanger for the comte d'Artois in a discreet neoclassical style
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...

 quite in keeping with the general classic style of the château.

The staircase was of a type that Mansart originated at Balleroy, in which the central space is left open, so that the flights climb the four walls.

On the parade floor, the apartment to the right, called the Appartement des Aigles for the Empire style decoration effected by maréchal Lannes in expectation of the visit of Napoleon, is undistinguished. That on the left, on the other hand, the Appartement du Roi is also called à l'italienne in that it is covered in false vaulting. The apartment consists of a vast Salle des Fêtes employed also in the character of a guardroom, with a tribune for musicians. It opens into the Salon d'Hercule from the painting of Hercules defeating the Hydra that formerly was featured on the chimneybreast, with sculptures by Guérin. In the end pavilion is a dome
Dome
A dome is a structural element of architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere. Dome structures made of various materials have a long architectural lineage extending into prehistory....

d room articulated by therm figures, a precursor to the grand salon of Vaux-le-Vicomte
Vaux-le-Vicomte
The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte is a baroque French château located in Maincy, near Melun, 55 km southeast of Paris in the Seine-et-Marne département of France...

. A small oval cabinet, or private withdrawing room, the Cabinet des Miroirs bears a refined decor, and a parquet floor inlaid with pewter and bone.

Maison's Influence on Architecture

  • The Château de Franconville at Saint-Martin-du-Tertre (Val-d'Oise), built by Gabriel-Hippolyte Destailleur
    Gabriel-Hippolyte Destailleur
    Gabriel-Hippolyte Alexandre Destailleur was a renowned Neo-Renaissance French architect noted for his designs and restoration work for great châteaux in France and in England....

     for the duc de Massa in 1876 takes Maisons for its model.

  • In the suburbs of Beijing
    Beijing
    Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

    , the Chinese multi-millionaire real-estate developer Zhang Yuchen built a copy of the Château, enhancing it by adding two wings from the Palace of Fontainebleau. The building cost $50 million, contains a hotel and seminar center and opened in 2004. It is called Zhang-Laffitte. (40°7′49"N 116°26′32"E)

  • The Plaza Constitución terminal train station (Buenos Aires
    Buenos Aires
    Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

    , Argentina
    Argentina
    Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

    ) opened on January 1. 1887 and rebuilt in 1900, is also an example of the influence of Maisons.
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