Château de Maisons

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."^[1]

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 accused 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 remodelling certain parts of his buildings more than once in a search for perfection.

After 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

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

Architecture

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

The staircase was of a type that Mansart originated at the Château de Balleroy,^[4] in which the central space is left open so that the flights climb the four walls.

• Interior of the ground floor
• 
  Main vestibule, viewed toward the stair hall in the right wing
• 
  Main vestibule ceiling
• 
  Main staircase in 1890
• 
  Chambre des Captifs
• 
  Appartement de la Renommée or Salle à Manger (dining room)

On the parade or main floor, the apartment to the right, called the Appartement des Aigles for the

• Interior of the main floor
• 
  Bedroom of maréchal Lannes
• 
  Bed alcove of the Chambre du Roi
• 
  Fireplace in the Salon d'Hercule
• 
  Salle des Fêtes, looking towards the fireplace
• 
  Salle des Fêtes, looking towards the musicians gallery
• 
  Cabinet aux Miroirs
• 
  Floor of the Cabinet aux Miroirs
• 
  Ceiling of the Cabinet aux Miroirs

Influence on architecture

• The
  Gabriel-Hippolyte Destailleur
  for the duc de Massa in 1876, takes Maisons for its model.
• In the suburbs of Beijing, 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.^[5] (40°7′49″N 116°26′32″E / 40.13028°N 116.44222°E / 40.13028; 116.44222 (Zhang-Laffitte))
• The
  Constitución Railway Station
  in Buenos Aires, Argentina, opened on 1 January 1887 and was rebuilt in 1900.

See also

• List of Baroque residences
• History of early modern period domes

Notes

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Château de Maisons.

• Claude Mignot, Le Château de Maisons, Editions du patrimoine, coll. "Itinéraire du patrimoine", 1998.
• Jean-Marie Pérouse de Montclos (dir.), Le guide du patrimoine, Ile-de-France, Hachette, 1992.
• Charles Perrault, Les hommes illustres..., Antoine Dezallier, 1696. View at Google Books.
• Amis du Château de Maisons-Lafitte Full history, plans, photographs, details
• maisons laffitte Little History and some pictures

External links

• Château de Maisons - official site

48°56′50″N 2°09′14″E / 48.94722°N 2.15389°E / 48.94722; 2.15389