Château d'Armainvilliers

The Chateau d'Armainvilliers is a historic château that today extends over the municipalities of Tournan-en-Brie and Gretz-Armainvilliers in Seine-et-Marne, France, approximately 30 miles east of Paris.

Château d'Armainvilliers
Château d'Armainvilliers, c. 1900
General information
Type	Château
Architectural style	Norman
Location	Gretz-Armainvilliers, Seine-et-Marne, France
Coordinates	48°45′00″N 2°44′47″E
Construction started	1877
Completed	1881
Client	Edmond de Rothschild
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Félix Langlais [fr] Émile Ulmann [fr]

History

A château is mentioned there from the 14th century, which gave refuge to François I in 1544 after the capture of Château-Thierry by Charles V. From this time, it became the residence of the Lords of Tournan and Gretz-Armainvilliers (the Beringhens in the 17th to 18th centuries: Jacques-Louis de Beringhen [fr] (1651–1723), first equerry of King Louis XIV, who was ennobled as the Count of Armainvilliers in June 1704. The chateau eventually passed to his son, Henri-Camille de Beringhen [fr].^[1][2]

Bourbon-Penthièvre

In March 1762, King Louis XV (who had become King in 1715 at the age of five, succeeding his great-grandfather Louis XIV) exchanged the dukedom of Gisors, the Pontcarré estate, and the château, land, and Lordship of Armainvilliers,^[3] for the principality of Dombes with Louis Charles de Bourbon, Count of Eu.^{[lower-alpha 1]} Following the exchange, the Count of Eu took the title of Count of Armainvilliers. Upon the Count's death in 1775, the estate and titles passed to his younger cousin the Duke of Penthièvre, but it was partly destroyed during the French Revolution.^[3] In 1808, it was acquired by stockbroker Claude Bailliot.

Under the Restoration, the château was returned to Louise Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon, Duchess of Orléans, the wealthiest heiress in France prior to the French Revolution following the death of her brother, Louis Alexandre, Prince of Lamballe, in 1768 (the only two surviving children of the Duke of Penthièvre). After Louise, the wife of Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans (cousin of Louis XVI), died in 1821, her estates passed into the possession of the House of Orléans.^[4] Her son, King Louis Philippe I, ceded Armainvilliers to his sister, Princess Adélaïde d'Orléans, during the partition of 1822. Princess Adélaïde died at the Palais des Tuileries in Paris in 1847.

Rochefoucauld-Doudeauville

The Pereire country house in Gretz-Armainvilliers, also known as the Château d'Armainvilliers.

In 1855, after the start of the Second French Empire, Angélique de la Rochefoucauld, Duchess of Doudeauville,^{[lower-alpha 2]} purchased the château for 500,000 francs.^[6] The La Rochefoucauld-Doudeauville family then restored it using woodwork from the recently demolished Château de Bercy and developing the park. Her second husband, Sosthènes I de La Rochefoucauld, 2nd Duke of Doudeauville, former aide-de-camp to King Charles X, died at the château in 1864.^[7]

In 1863, the Duchess brought a lawsuit against her neighbor Émile Péreire,^[8] "on the ground that he had infringed her rights by giving the name of Château d'Armainvilliers to a mansion which he has built in the vicinity of her residence."^{[9][lower-alpha 3]} The Pereire's Château d'Armainvilliers was bombed by mistake by the U.S. Air Force during World War II in 1944, and demolished in 1950.^[10]

Rothschild

Postcard of the avenue leading to the Château d'Armainvilliers, 1903

In 1877, the estate was acquired by Baron Edmond de Rothschild, who completely razed the existing château and replaced it with a S-shaped modern residence in the Anglo-Norman style, primarily designed by architects Félix Langlais [fr] and Émile Ulmann [fr].^[11] The estate featured guardhouses, Norman-style farms, a number of outbuildings, and a large orangery done up in the English style. Between 1881 and 1938, additional additions were made to the château and the estate grew from 250 hectares (620 acres) to 3,961 hectares (9,790 acres) by the end of the century. During their renovations, they added seven en suite bathrooms, a rarity at the time.^[12] Rothschild entrusted the development of the park to Élie Lainé.^[7]

During World War I, an infirmary was set up in the château, and during World War II, it was occupied by German troops. Baron Rothschild died in 1934 and the estate passed to his second son, Maurice de Rothschild. Upon his death in 1957, it passed to Maurice's son Edmond Adolphe de Rothschild.^[7]

Alawi

In the 1980s, Rothschild sold the estate to the King of Morocco, Hassan II of the Alawi dynasty, who carried out extensive rehabilitation work. His son, King Mohammed VI, sold the château for €200 million in 2008, reportedly to Esam Janahi, a leading figure in Islamic finance.^[13]

In 2024, the 100-room château situated on nearly 2,500 acres was listed for sale for €425 million,^[14] which if sold at that price, would be the most expensive house in the world.^[15]

See also

• List of castles in France

References

Notes

1. Louis Charles de Bourbon, Count of Eu (1701–1775), the youngest son of Louis Auguste, Duke of Maine, and Anne Louise Bénédicte de Bourbon, was a grandson of Louis XIV of France and Madame de Montespan. He was the last member of the legitimised house of Maine branch of the House of Bourbon, a legitimised, cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty.
2. Angélique Herminie de La Brousse de Verteillac (1797–1881), was a daughter of François-Gabriel-Thibault of La Brousse de Verteillac, Marquis de Verteillac, Baron de La Tour Blanche, and Charlotte Félicité Élisabeth Tiercelin d'Appelvoisin. Before her marriage to Sosthènes I de La Rochefoucauld, 2nd Duke of Doudeauville, she was the widow of Félix de Bourbon-Conti (recognized natural son of Louis François, Prince of Conti).^[5]
3. Péreire had purchased the forest of Armainvilliers, which adjoined the Rochefoucauld estate (both former properties of Princess Adélaïde, which were sold following the 22 January 1852 decree relating to the estates of the Orléans family).^[9] Péreire built a mansion in the forest which he allowed to be called Château d'Armainvilliers. The Duke wrote to Péreire in August 1861, asking him to choose another name but he declined to rename it. After a three-day hearing, the Civil Tribunal of the Seine decided that the Château d'Armainvilliers name was the property of the Duchess,^[9] and that Péreire "had no right to give it a name which had for centuries been appropriated to another residence; and that he must henceforth discontinue the use of the name in question."^[9]

Sources

1. de La Chesnaye Des Bois, François-Alexandre Aubert (1771). Dictionnaire De La Noblesse: Contenant les Généalogies, l'Histoire & la Chronologie des Familles Nobles de France, ... (in French). p. 344. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
2. Art (U.S.), National Gallery of; Conisbee, Philip (2009). French Paintings of the Fifteenth Through the Eighteenth Century. National Gallery of Art. p. 353. ISBN 978-0-691-14535-8. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
3. Biographique, Revue Historique Nobiliaire et (1863). Revue Nobiliaire Héraldique et Biographique, publ. par m. Bonneserre de St-Denis. [Continued as] Revue historique nobiliaire et biographique (in French). p. 215. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
4. Maillart, Pascale; West, Georges (1 January 1986). Archives de la Maison de France, branche d'Orléans (4): Catalogue des cartes et plans (in French). FeniXX. p. 33. ISBN 978-2-402-57533-1. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
5. Annuaire historique et biographique des souverains, des chefs et membres des maisons princières, des autres maisons nobles, et des anciennes familles, et principalement des hommes d'État, des membres des chambres législatives, du clergé, des hommes de guerre, des magistrats et des hommes de science de toutes les nations (in French). Direction. 1844. p. 126. Retrieved 17 June 2024.
6. "A Curious Law Suit". The New York Times. 12 August 1863. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
7. "Château d'Armainvilliers, Seine-et-Marne, France". family.rothschildarchive.org. Rothschild Family. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
8. Hallion, Richard (8 May 2003). Taking Flight: Inventing the Aerial Age, from Antiquity Through the First World War. Oxford University Press. p. 130. ISBN 978-0-19-516035-2. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
9. "FOREIGN TRIBUNALS & JURISPRUDENCE | FRANCE | PROPERTY IN NAME OF RESIDENCE". The Solicitors' Journal & Reporter. Law Newspaper Company: 742. 1863. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
10. Helen M. Davies (2015). Emile and Isaac Pereire: Bankers, Socialists and Sephardic Jews in Nineteenth-Century France. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
11. Ferguson, Niall (1 September 2000). The House of Rothschild: Volume 2: The World's Banker: 1849-1999. Penguin. p. 343. ISBN 978-1-101-15357-4. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
12. Ashenburg, Katherine (8 April 2014). The Dirt on Clean: An Unsanitized History. Macmillan + ORM. p. 180. ISBN 978-1-4668-6776-5. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
13. "Ce château de Gretz-Armainvilliers peut-il valoir 425 millions d'euros?". Le Figaro (in French). 18 April 2024. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
14. Lucking, Liz (April 16, 2024). "French Chateau, Once Owned by the Rothschild Family and the King of Morocco, Selling for €425 Million Chateau d'Armainvilliers is a timber-framed, 100-room mansion standing on 2,500 acres". Mansion Global. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
15. McLaughlin, Katherine (25 April 2024). "The Most Expensive House in the World Could Soon Be This French Château". Architectural Digest. Retrieved 18 June 2024.

External links

• Media related to Château d’Armainvilliers at Wikimedia Commons