The Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye is a French royal palace in the commune of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in the département of Yvelines, about 19 km west of Paris. A palace is a grand residence especially the home of a Head of state or some other high-ranking Public figure. The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. For treaties with this name see Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (disambiguation Saint-Germain-en-Laye is a commune in the western In the context of the political and geographic organization of France and many of its former colonies a department (département depaʁtǝmɑ̃ is an Administrative division Yvelines is a French department in the region of Île-de-France. The kilometre ( American spelling: kilometer) symbol km is a unit of Length in the Metric system, equal to one thousand Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city Today, it houses the Musée d'Archéologie Nationale (Museum of National Archeology).
The first castle, named the Grand Châtelet, was built on the site by Louis VI in around 1122. A castle is a defensive structure seen as one of the main symbols of the Middle Ages. Louis VI ( 1 December 1081 – 1 August 1137) called the Fat (le Gros was King of France from 1108 until his death (1137 The castle was expanded by Saint Louis in the 1230s. It was burned by the Black Prince in 1346; of it, only the Gothic chapel remains. Edward of Woodstock, Prince of Wales, KG (15 June 1330 – 8 June 1376 popularly known as The Black Prince, was the eldest son of King Edward See also Gothic art Gothic architecture is a style of Architecture which flourished during the high and late medieval period. This Château Vieux was rebuilt by King Charles V in the 1360s on the old foundations. Charles V ( 21 January 1338 – 16 September 1380) called the Wise, was King of France from 1364 to his death and a member The oldest parts of the current château were reconstructed by François I in 1539, and have subsequently been expanded several times. For other senses of this word see Château (disambiguation. A château (plural châteaux) is a Manor house or residence Francis I (September 12 1494 &ndash March 31 1547 was crowned King of France in 1515 in the cathedral at Reims and reigned until 1547
Henri II built a separate new château (le Château Neuf) nearby, to designs by Philibert de l'Orme, sited at the crest of a slope, which was shaped, under the direction of Étienne du Pérac (Karling 1974 p 10) into three massive descending terraces and narrower subsidiary mediating terraces, which were linked by divided symmetrical stairs and ramps and extended a single axis that finished at the edge of the Seine; the design took many cues from the Villa Lante at Bagnaia[1]. Henry II (Henri II (31 March 1519 &ndash 10 July 1559 of the House of Valois and the son and successor of Francis I, was King of France from 31 Philibert de l'Orme (c 1510 &ndash January 8, 1570) was a French Architect, one of the great masters of the Renaissance. Étienne Dupérac or du Pérac (1520 — 1607 was a French painter draughtsman and engraver and a Topographer and Antiquary, who arrived in Rome in 1559 The Seine (sɛn in French) is a slow flowing major River and commercial waterway within the regions of Île-de-France and Haute-Normandie Villa Lante at Bagnaia near Viterbo, attributed to Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola (there is no contemporary documentation is with Bomarzo, Villa Lante at Bagnaia near Viterbo, attributed to Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola (there is no contemporary documentation is with Bomarzo, "Étienne du Pérac had spent a long time in Italy, and one manifestation of his interest in gardens of this type is his well-known view of the Villa d'Este, engraved in 1573" (Karling 1974, p 11). The Villa d'Este is a Villa situated at Tivoli, near Rome. Listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, it is a masterpiece of Italian
The gardens laid out at Saint-Germain-en-Laye were among a half-dozen gardens introducing the Italian garden style to France that laid the groundwork for the French formal garden. A formal garden in the Western gardening tradition is a neat and ordered Garden laid out in carefully planned geometric and symmetric lines Unlike the parterres that were laid out in casual relation to existing châteaux, often on difficult sites originally selected for defensive reasons,[2] these new gardens extended the central axis of a symmetrical building façade in rigorously symmetrical axial designs of patterned parterres, gravel walks, fountains and basins, and formally-planted bosquets; they began the tradition that reached its apex after 1650 in the gardens of André Le Nôtre. A parterre is a formal garden construction on a level surface consisting of planting beds edged in stone or tightly clipped hedging, and gravel paths arranged to form For the surname Bosquet see Bosquet (surname. In the French Formal garden, a bosquet (French from Italian bosco, "grove André Le Nôtre ( March 12, 1613 &ndash September 15 1700) was a Landscape architect and the gardener of King Louis XIV [3] According to Claude Mollet's Théâtre des plans et jardinage[4] the parterres were laid out in 1595 for Henri IV by Mollet, trained at Anet and the progenitor of a dynasty of royal gardeners. Claude Mollet (ca 1564-shortly before 1649 premier jardinier du Roy &mdashfirst gardener in fact to three French kings Henri IV, Louis XIII and the young Henry IV (Henri IV ( 13 December 1553 &ndash 14 May 1610) ruled as King of France from 1589 to 1610 and as Henry III One of the parterre designs by Mollet at Saint-Germain-en-Laye was illustrated in Olivier de Serre's Le théâtre d'agriculture et mesnage des champs (1600), but the Château Neuf and the whole of its spectacular series of terraces can be fully seen in an engraving after Alexandre Francini, 1614. Tommaso Francini, Thomas Francine in France (1571 — 1651 and his younger brother Alessandro Francini ( Alexandre Francine in France were Florentine [5]
Louis XIV was born at Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1638. Early years Birth and ancestry Louis XIV was born in the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye on September 5 1638 and bore the Heir apparent One of du Pérac's retaining walls collapsed in 1660, and Louis undertook a renovation of the gardens in 1662. At his majority he established his court here in 1666, but it was the Château Vieux that he preferred: the Château Neuf was abandoned in the 1660s and demolished. From 1663 until 1682, when the king removed definitively to Versailles, the team that he inherited from the unfortunate Fouquet— Louis Le Vau, Jules Hardouin-Mansart and André Le Nôtre laboured to give the ancient pile a more suitable aspect. Louis Le Vau (1612 – October 11 1670) was a French Classical Architect who worked for Louis XIV of France. Jules Hardouin-Mansart (Paris April 16, 1646 &ndash Marly-le-Roi, France May 11, 1708) was a French Architect whose André Le Nôtre ( March 12, 1613 &ndash September 15 1700) was a Landscape architect and the gardener of King Louis XIV
The gardens were remade by André Le Nôtre from 1669 to 1673, and include a 2. André Le Nôtre ( March 12, 1613 &ndash September 15 1700) was a Landscape architect and the gardener of King Louis XIV 4 kilometre long stone terrace which provides a view over the valley of the Seine and, in the distance, Paris. The Seine (sɛn in French) is a slow flowing major River and commercial waterway within the regions of Île-de-France and Haute-Normandie
Louis XIV turned the château over to King James II after his exile from Britain in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. James II of England and Ireland James VII of Scotland (14 October 1633 &ndash 16 September 1701 was King of England, King of Scots, Later that same year James The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, was the overthrow of King James II of England (VII of Scotland in 1688 by a union King James lived in the château for thirteen years, and his daughter Marie-Louise Stuart was born in exile here in 1692. King James Stuart is buried in the nearby Church of Saint-Germain; his descendants stayed at the château until the French Revolution, leaving in 1793. The French Revolution (1789–1799 was a period of political and social upheaval in the History of France, during which the French governmental structure previously an
In the 19th century, Napoleon I established his cavalry officers training school here. The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar Napoleon Bonaparte (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821 was a French military and political leader who had a significant impact on the History of Europe. Napoleon III had the castle restored by Eugène Millet from 1862, and it became the Musée des Antiquités Nationales (Museum of National Antiquities) in 1867, displaying the archeological objects of France. Napoléon III, also known as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte (full name Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte) (20 April 1808 9 January 1873 was the first President
On September 10, 1919 the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, ending hostilities between the Allies of World War I and Austria, was signed at the château. The Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, was signed on 10 September 1919 by the victorious Allies of World War I on the one hand and by the new The Entente Powers (from Triple Entente) were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich [6]
During the German occupation (1940-44), the château served as the headquarters of the German Army in France.
The museum was renamed the Musée d'Archéologie Nationale in 2005. [7] Its collections include finds from Paleolithic to Merovingian times. The term Paleolithic (or Palaeolithic) (from Greek παλαιός palaios, " Old " and λίθος Lithos, "stone" The Merovingians (also Merovings) were a Salian Frankish dynasty that came to rule the Franks in a region (known as Francia in Latin
Notes
- ^ F. Hamilton Hazlehurst, Jacques Boyceau, pp20, 77-79, 100, noted by Karling.
- ^ Even the parterres at Fontainebleau bear no direct relation to the façades of the château. Fontainebleau is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France.
- ^ Sten Karling, in "The importance of André Mollet and his family for the development of the French formal garden," in The French Formal Garden, Elizabeth MacDougall and F. Hamilton Hazlehurst, editors, (Dumbarton Oaks, 1974), in making this point, notes Ancy-le-Franc, Anet, Maune, Charleval, Verneuil and Saint-Germain-en-Laye. The Château d'Ancy-le-Franc, designed by Sebastiano Serlio and constructed 1544-1550 is one of the sites where the Italian Renaissance was introduced full-blown The Château d'Anet is a French Château near Dreux built by Philibert de l'Orme for Diane de Poitiers, the mistress of Henry II of France
- ^ The book was not published until 1652, but it had long been in preparation (Karling 1974).
- ^ Francini's engraving is illustrated by Karling, fig. 8.
- ^ "Austrian treaty signed in amity," The New York Times, Sept. 11, 1919, p. 12.
- ^ Ministerial decree no. 2005-698 of June 22, 2005. [1]
External links
- Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye in the Structurae database (French version of page also includes the history of the Château)
- Musée des Antiquités Nationales (French)
- "St-Germain-en-Laye: un haut lieu de la royauté (French)
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