Château de Maisons - Maisons-Lafitte, France
N 48° 56.840 E 002° 09.221
31U E 438033 N 5421946
[FR] Chef-d'œuvre de l'architecture civile française du XVIIe siècle, qui constitue une référence dans l'histoire de l'architecture. [EN] A prime example of French baroque architecture and a reference point in the history of French architecture.
Waymark Code: WMKBMZ
Location: Île-de-France, France
Date Posted: 03/15/2014
Views: 7
[FR] À partir de 1630, et pendant sans doute vingt à trente ans, René de Longueil, premier président de la Cour des aides puis président à mortier au Parlement de Paris, consacre la fortune héritée de sa femme, Madeleine Boulenc de Crévecœur (décédée en 1636), à la construction d'un magnifique château. Il peut passer l'été dans son château en 1649, mais les travaux des dépendances se poursuivent bien au-delà de cette date.
Sur la foi des témoignages des contemporains, le bâtiment est attribué à l'architecte François Mansart.
Mis en scène dans son domaine, le château de Maisons appartient à une époque où cohabitent les esthétiques classique et baroque. Si l'influence classique prédomine, le baroque est néammoins présent par de multiples "clins d'oeil" : illusions, trompe-l'oeil, art de paraître...
[EN] Beginning in 1630, and for the next decades, René de Longueil, 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. 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 visited Maisons in April 1651.
The attribution to François Mansart was common knowledge among contemporaries. Charles Perrault 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."
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 work of Pierre Lescot 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 with three attic floors above.
Accessibility: Full access
Condition: Intact
Admission Charge?: yes
Website: [Web Link]
|