Château du Grand Jardin
Encyclopedia
The Château du Grand Jardin was a maison de plaisance attached to the seat at Joinville
, Haute-Marne
of Claude de Lorraine, duc de Guise
, who built it between 1533 and 1546 as a grand pavilion
designed for fête
s and entertainments. The Château d'en-bas (the "Lower Château") as it was called at first, formed an annex to the medieval château fort overlooking Joinville, a stronghold of the House of Guise
that was demolished at the French Revolution
. In addition to its grand festive hall, which dominated the interior, were a suite of semi-private rooms to which the duke and duchess could withdraw with their most honored guests; they included a chamber
preceded by its antechamber
and a more private garde-robe within, but no bedrooms, as the seat of the Duke, the château de Joinville itself, was so near at hand. The Château du Grand Jardin functioned as a banqueting house
on the grandest scale, a fit demonstration of the power and prestige of the head of the House of Guise.
The site, partly in ruins, was purchased at the beginning of the 1980s by the conseil général of Haute-Marne
. The building was restored, and the grand park created in the 19th century has been restored and replanted (illustration).
The site has also reacquired its original vocation as a place of culture: concerts of classical music are presented at the Grand Jardin, expositions of contemporary art, and colloquiums. The château du Grand Jardin is currently a member of the European network of Centres culturels de rencontre.
, surrounded by its moat
in the usual French manner, comprises a rectangular corps de logis
without wings or outbuildings. Richly ornamented, it combines elements of Italian architectural style, under its prominent French slate roof with dormer windows.
The interior is dominated by a vast reception hall. Beneath are wine cellars and kitchens. About 1544 a reception room (chambre d'apparat) was added in the northeast corner, and in 1546 a chapel was built at the southern corner, with a coffered ceiling in the Italian taste.The two ends of the structure contain spiral staircases, with military motifs and the princely monogram enriching the mouldings.
, (Indre-et-Loire) and Chamerolles (Loiret) among the great French gardens of the 16th century. Swept away in favor of a parc à l'anglaise in the 19th century, after the site had been purchased in 1856 by the foundry master Pierre Salin Capitaine, then left to run wild, the parterre
was entirely remade in the 1990s to give the maison de plaisance a setting suited to its festive character. In a space of about four hectares, its shaped compartments are complemented by squares planted with flowewrs for the altar and aromatics and medicinal herbs. A collection of 365 fruit trees, in their natural state or pruned as free-standing or espalier
ed against walls or free-standing palissades en treillage enclose the parterre; they include traditional varieties of apples, pears, quince
s, cherries, plums.
The English park also remains, as a kind of arboretum
of specimen trees that include Chinese Ginkgo biloba, American Bald cypresses, Liquidambar and Liriodendron
and the Dawn Redwood Metasequoia
. Water is an important element: the spring feeds a canal that traverses the garden and fills the moats, then as a natural brook flows through the park to a small pond.
Though the garden was ravaged by the troops of Emperor Charles V
in 1544, they were doubtless restored for the visit of François I
in 1546; the garden in its heyday was described by the poet Rémy Belleau
, a member of la Pléiade
who was serving as tutor to Charles, son of the marquis d'Elboeuf, as "Le plus beau et le plus accompli qu'on pourrait souhaiter… soit pour le comptant d'arbres fruitiers… soit pour la beauté du parterre"— "the most beautiful and the most accomplished that one could wish, whether for the number of its fruit trees or for the beauty of the parterre."
Joinville, Haute-Marne
Joinville is a commune in the Haute-Marne department in north-eastern France.Its medieval château-fort, which gave to members of the House of Guise their title, duc de Joinville, was demolished during the Revolution of 1789, but the 16th-century Château du Grand Jardin built by Claude de Lorraine,...
, Haute-Marne
Haute-Marne
Haute-Marne is a department in the northeast of France named after the Marne River.-History:Haute-Marne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
of Claude de Lorraine, duc de Guise
Claude, Duke of Guise
Claude de Lorraine, duc de Guise was a French aristocrat and general. He became the first Duke of Guise in 1528....
, who built it between 1533 and 1546 as a grand pavilion
Pavilion (structure)
In architecture a pavilion has two main meanings.-Free-standing structure:Pavilion may refer to a free-standing structure sited a short distance from a main residence, whose architecture makes it an object of pleasure. Large or small, there is usually a connection with relaxation and pleasure in...
designed for fête
Fête
Fête is a French word meaning festival, celebration or party, which has passed into English as a label that may be given to certain events.-Description:It is widely used in England and Australia in the context of a village fête,...
s and entertainments. The Château d'en-bas (the "Lower Château") as it was called at first, formed an annex to the medieval château fort overlooking Joinville, a stronghold of the House of Guise
House of Guise
The House of Guise was a French ducal family, partly responsible for the French Wars of Religion.The Guises were Catholic, and Henry Guise wanted to end growing Calvinist influence...
that was demolished at the French 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...
. In addition to its grand festive hall, which dominated the interior, were a suite of semi-private rooms to which the duke and duchess could withdraw with their most honored guests; they included a chamber
Great chamber
The great chamber was the second most important room in a medieval or Tudor English castle, palace, mansion or manor house after the great hall. Medieval great halls were the ceremonial centre of household and were not private at all; the gentlemen attendants and the servants would come and go all...
preceded by its antechamber
Antechamber
An antechamber is a smaller room or vestibule serving as an entryway into a larger one. The word is formed of the Latin ante camera, meaning "room before"....
and a more private garde-robe within, but no bedrooms, as the seat of the Duke, the château de Joinville itself, was so near at hand. The Château du Grand Jardin functioned as a banqueting house
Banqueting House
In Tudor and Early Stuart English architecture a banqueting house is a separate building reached through pleasure gardens from the main residence, whose use is purely for entertaining. It may be raised for additional air or a vista, and it may be richly decorated, but it contains no bedrooms or...
on the grandest scale, a fit demonstration of the power and prestige of the head of the House of Guise.
The site, partly in ruins, was purchased at the beginning of the 1980s by the conseil général of Haute-Marne
Haute-Marne
Haute-Marne is a department in the northeast of France named after the Marne River.-History:Haute-Marne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
. The building was restored, and the grand park created in the 19th century has been restored and replanted (illustration).
The site has also reacquired its original vocation as a place of culture: concerts of classical music are presented at the Grand Jardin, expositions of contemporary art, and colloquiums. The château du Grand Jardin is currently a member of the European network of Centres culturels de rencontre.
Architecture
The plan of the châteauChâteau
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...
, surrounded by its moat
Moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...
in the usual French manner, comprises a rectangular corps de logis
Corps de logis
Corps de logis is the architectural term which refers to the principal block of a large, usually classical, mansion or palace. It contains the principal rooms, state apartments and an entry. The grandest and finest rooms are often on the first floor above the ground level: this floor is the...
without wings or outbuildings. Richly ornamented, it combines elements of Italian architectural style, under its prominent French slate roof with dormer windows.
The interior is dominated by a vast reception hall. Beneath are wine cellars and kitchens. About 1544 a reception room (chambre d'apparat) was added in the northeast corner, and in 1546 a chapel was built at the southern corner, with a coffered ceiling in the Italian taste.The two ends of the structure contain spiral staircases, with military motifs and the princely monogram enriching the mouldings.
Garden
The remarkable garden, now splendidly restored, once ranked with VillandryVillandry
Villandry is a commune in the Indre-et-Loire department in central France. The Château de Villandry is located there....
, (Indre-et-Loire) and Chamerolles (Loiret) among the great French gardens of the 16th century. Swept away in favor of a parc à l'anglaise in the 19th century, after the site had been purchased in 1856 by the foundry master Pierre Salin Capitaine, then left to run wild, the parterre
Parterre
A parterre is a formal garden construction on a level surface consisting of planting beds, edged in stone or tightly clipped hedging, and gravel paths arranged to form a pleasing, usually symmetrical pattern. Parterres need not have any flowers at all...
was entirely remade in the 1990s to give the maison de plaisance a setting suited to its festive character. In a space of about four hectares, its shaped compartments are complemented by squares planted with flowewrs for the altar and aromatics and medicinal herbs. A collection of 365 fruit trees, in their natural state or pruned as free-standing or espalier
Espalier
Espalier is the horticultural and ancient agricultural practice of controlling woody plant growth by pruning and tying branches so that they grow into a flat plane, frequently in formal patterns, against a structure such as a wall, fence, or trellis, and also plants which have been shaped in this...
ed against walls or free-standing palissades en treillage enclose the parterre; they include traditional varieties of apples, pears, quince
Quince
The quince , or Cydonia oblonga, is the sole member of the genus Cydonia and native to warm-temperate southwest Asia in the Caucasus region...
s, cherries, plums.
The English park also remains, as a kind of arboretum
Arboretum
An arboretum in a narrow sense is a collection of trees only. Related collections include a fruticetum , and a viticetum, a collection of vines. More commonly, today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study...
of specimen trees that include Chinese Ginkgo biloba, American Bald cypresses, Liquidambar and Liriodendron
Liriodendron
Liriodendron is a genus of two species of characteristically large deciduous trees in the magnolia family .These trees are widely known by the common name tulip tree or tuliptree for their large flowers superficially resembling tulips, but are closely related to magnolias rather than lilies, the...
and the Dawn Redwood Metasequoia
Metasequoia
Metasequoia is a fast-growing, deciduous tree, and the sole living species, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, is one of three species of conifers known as redwoods. It is native to the Sichuan-Hubei region of China. Although the least tall of the redwoods, it grows to at least 200 feet in height...
. Water is an important element: the spring feeds a canal that traverses the garden and fills the moats, then as a natural brook flows through the park to a small pond.
Though the garden was ravaged by the troops of Emperor Charles V
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...
in 1544, they were doubtless restored for the visit of François I
Francis I of France
Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death. During his reign, huge cultural changes took place in France and he has been called France's original Renaissance monarch...
in 1546; the garden in its heyday was described by the poet Rémy Belleau
Remy Belleau
Remy Belleau , was a poet of the French Renaissance. He is most known for his paradoxical poems of praise for simple things and his poems about precious stones....
, a member of la Pléiade
La Pléiade
The Pléiade is the name given to a group of 16th-century French Renaissance poets whose principal members were Pierre de Ronsard, Joachim du Bellay and Jean-Antoine de Baïf. The name was a reference to another literary group, the original Alexandrian Pleiad of seven Alexandrian poets and...
who was serving as tutor to Charles, son of the marquis d'Elboeuf, as "Le plus beau et le plus accompli qu'on pourrait souhaiter… soit pour le comptant d'arbres fruitiers… soit pour la beauté du parterre"— "the most beautiful and the most accomplished that one could wish, whether for the number of its fruit trees or for the beauty of the parterre."