Château de Villers-Cotterêts

The Château de Villers-Cotterêts (pronounced [ʃɑto d(ə) vilɛʁ kɔt(ə)ʁɛ]) is a historic French château located in the town of Villers-Cotterêts in the Aisne department, Hauts-de-France, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) north-east of Paris.

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Château de Villers-Cotterêts


General information
Type	Château
Architectural style	French Renaissance
Town or city	Villers-Cotterêts
Country	France
Construction started	1530
Completed	1556
Owner	Government of France
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Jacques Lebreton, Guillaume Lebreton, Philibert de l'Orme

It is a state property and a historic monument since 1997.

Original construction

The castle was built for Francis I of France on the edge of the Forest of Retz.

In 1539, Francis I of France signed the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts which made the use of the French language mandatory in the acts of administration and justice.

In 1661, Louis XIV granted the castle to his brother Philippe I, Duke of Orléans.^[1] It remained with the House of Orléans until the Revolution.

In 1787 Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans was exiled to the château over opposition to the May Edicts in 1787.

Revolution and aftermath

In 1790, the castle was seized as national property.

Napoleon turned it into a beggar's home, a prison and a hospice in 1808. It then became a retirement home in 1889 until the end of 2014.^[2]

21st century restoration

In 2023, following a colossal restoration campaign, president Emmanuel Macron turned the castle into the Cité Internationale de la Langue Française, dedicated to the French language.^[3]

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[1]
"Villers-Cotterêts Castle". www.culture.gouv.fr.
[2]
"The Château de Villers-Cotterêts becomes the Cité internationale de la langue française - CMN". www.monuments-nationaux.fr.
[3]
"French Monument of the Month: Villers-Cotterêts". France Today. October 11, 2023.

Cité internationale de la langue française official website (English language)
Media related to Château de Villers-Cotterêts at Wikimedia Commons

49°15′21″N 3°05′32″E

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You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (November 2023) Click [show] for important translation instructions.

View a machine-translated version of the French article.
Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 1,685 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing French Wikipedia article at [[:fr:Château de Villers-Cotterêts]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|fr|Château de Villers-Cotterêts}} to the talk page.
For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Quick Facts General information, Type ...

Château de Villers-Cotterêts


General information
Type	Château
Architectural style	French Renaissance
Town or city	Villers-Cotterêts
Country	France
Construction started	1530
Completed	1556
Owner	Government of France
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Jacques Lebreton, Guillaume Lebreton, Philibert de l'Orme

It is a state property and a historic monument since 1997.