Château

English translation

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History

The present château, built under the Restoration, replaces the one built by Antoine Le Pautre, in 1664-1672, for the superintendent of finances Joachim Seiglières de Boisfranc. It was there that Louis XVIII signed the Declaration of Saint-Ouen, on 2 May 1814, which preceded the establishment of the Charter on which the Restoration was based and established a compromise with certain revolutionary measures. In 1821, Louis XVIII had it destroyed to build in its place a neo-classical château of cubic form intended for his favourite, Zoé Talon, countess of Cayla. The king himself would have contributed to drawing up the plans and would have entrusted sketches to the architect Jean-Jacques-Marie Huvé. This pleasure house was inaugurated on 2 May 1823, anniversary of the Declaration of Saint-Ouen; the underground chapel was blessed the same day. A team notably including Pierre-Antoine Bellangé took care of the furnishings and decoration, and six paintings were entrusted to François Gérard. The park was then embellished with trees and follies. Until her death in 1852, the countess lived between Saint-Ouen and her Parisian townhouse. Subsequently, the estate was transmitted to her daughter who rented the land to an equestrian society in 1878, before the whole was purchased by the industrial company Thomson-Houston in 1917. The succession of owners led to the fragmentation and complete transformation of the land, which now served industrial production and comprised sports grounds and shared gardens for workers. Acquired by the municipality in 1956, the château was restored from 1961 and a museum was installed there in 1965. In the tradition of the follies of the 18th century and châteaux of Italian inspiration, notably Palladian, such as Marly, the Petit Trianon or the folly of Bagatelle, the château is built on a square plan with symmetrical façades and a pavilion roof. It rises over three levels with a raised ground floor. The windows are round arch on the ground floor, rectangular on the second level, and the last level constitutes a half-storey square. A porch with two Doric columns surmounted by an entablature and a balcony with balusters frames the entrance on two façades. The rooms on the ground floor, intended for reception, are the only ones to retain their original décor almost entirely. The dining room is punctuated around its perimeter by twelve raised columns imitating marble and the doors are veneered with elm burl. In the billiard room, adorned with mouldings and gilding, six marble tiles indicate in the centre of the room the location of the billiard table, and four paintings by F. Gérard on the theme of the seasons were placed in the wainscoting. The drawing room is the most richly decorated room and it contains an inscription commemorating the Declaration of Saint-Ouen originally placed opposite a portrait of Louis XVIII by F. Gérard. The first floor is served by a grand staircase with a partially gilded and sculpted bronze handrail and a mahogany handrail. The first floor comprised the apartments of the countess and her children, it has retained largely its original layout but only very few rare elements of décor. The last two floors have also undergone modifications but the original layouts remain legible.