Chateaux of Ile-de-France
Château de Breteuil
Château de Breteuil is built on a promontory overlooking the Chevreuse Valley. For most of its existence, the castle has been known as Bévilliers -from latin bis villae (two villas)- which implies that this property would date back to the gallo-roman period. The first estate appears in History as early as 1066 with Guillaume Osbern, the first Breteuil, who was Seneschal to the Duke of Normandy. Guillaume Osb ...
Founded: 1596 |
Location:
Vallée de Chevreuse, France
Château de Monte-Cristo
The Château de Monte-Cristo is a writer"s house museum located in the country home of the writer Alexandre Dumas. The château was built in 1846 by the architect Hippolyte Durand. Dumas named it after one of his most successful novels: The Count of Monte Cristo (1845–1846). Durand also built a writing studio on the grounds, which Dumas named the Château d"If after another setting from the ...
Founded: 1846 |
Location:
Le Port-Marly, France
Château de Chamarande
A fortified château in Chamarande was built in the 16th century, probably for François Hurault, who in 1563 acquired the two seigneuries which make up the present estate and took up residence here. This castle corresponds to the present buildings of the commanderie. After the death of François Hurault in 1613, the château passed to his son Jean, who expanded the estate. However, the château suffered in the Fronde an ...
Founded: 17th century |
Location:
Chamarande, France
Château d'Anet
The Château d'Anet is a château built by Philibert de l'Orme from 1547 to 1552 for Diane de Poitiers, the mistress of Henry II of France. It was a gift from the king and was built on the former château at the center of the domains of Diane's deceased husband, Louis de Brézé, seigneur d'Anet, Marshal of Normandy and Master of the Hunt. The château is especially noted for its exterior, notably the statues of Diane de ...
Founded: 1547-1552 |
Location:
Anet, France
Château de Dourdan
The Château de Dourdan was built at the request of Philip Augustus in the 1220s in the place of a wood structure. The castle became the property of Jean de Berry in 1385. It was besieged during the French Wars of Religion. Among some of the notable personages who resided in the castle were Philip IV of France"s daughter-in-law, Joan II, Countess of Burgundy, detained there from 1314 to 1315 in relation to the T ...
Founded: 1220s |
Location:
Dourdan, France
Château de Courson
The Château de Courson was built in 1676. Originally the home of the Lamoignon family, the château has been in the same family since the 18th century. Its historic park was laid out in formal style by a pupil of André Le Nôtre in the 18th century. During the 19th century the gardens were twice remodelled, first around 1820 for the Duc de Padoue by the landscaper Berthault, then again around 1860 b ...
Founded: 1676 |
Location:
Courson-Monteloup, France
Château de Maisons
Château de Maisons, designed by François Mansart from 1630 to 1651, is a prime example of French baroque architecture and a reference point in the history of French architecture. History The family of Longueil, long associated with the Parlement de Paris, had been in possession of part of the seigneurie of Maisons since 1460, and a full share since 1602. Beginning in 1630, and for the next decades, René de Longueil d ...
Founded: 1651 |
Location:
Maisons-Laffitte, France
Palais Rose
The Palais Rose was built in 1899, inspired by the Grand Trianon in Versailles. The Palais Rose in Vésinet should not be confused with the “other” Palais Rose, which once stood on the Avenue Foch and was razed in the early 1970s. The two buildings did however share a number of features. Both structures were designed around 1900 in the “Grand Trianon” style. The Palais Rose in Vésinet ...
Founded: 1899 |
Location:
Le Vésinet, France
Château de Dampierre
The Château de Dampierre was built by Jules Hardouin-Mansart in 1675–1683 for the duc de Chevreuse in French Baroque style. Protected behind fine wrought iron double gates, the main block and its outbuildings, linked by balustrades, are ranged symmetrically around a dry paved and gravelled cour d"honneur (three-sided courtyard). Behind, the central axis is extended between the former parterres, now mown h ...
Founded: 1675-1683 |
Location:
Dampierre-en-Yvelines, France
Domaine of Villarceaux
The Domaine of Villarceaux is a French château, water garden and park located in the commune of Chaussy. The gardens are located on the site of a medieval castle from the 11th century, built to protect France from the British, who at that time occupied Normandy, the neighboring province. Many vestiges of the medieval fortifications remain in the park. A manor house and French water garden was built there in the 17th ...
Founded: 11th century |
Location:
Chaussy, France
Château d'Ambleville
The Château d"Ambleville is a French Renaissance style château located within the regional park of Vexin. The gardens are classified among the Notable Gardens of France. The château was built in the 16th century for the seigneurs of Ambleville and Villarceaux by architect Jean Grappin, on the foundations of a medieval castle on the banks of the Aubette. In the 17th century, the house was acquired b ...
Founded: 16th century |
Location:
Ambleville, France
Château de Méréville
Château de Méréville is known of its landscape gardens made in the late eighteenth century. The château was first built as a medieval fortress, and then rebuilt on the medieval buildings" remains in 1768 for Jean Delpech. The 1768 phase was provided with modest formal gardens. The château and its park in the French gardening style were bought in 1784 as the last of his country houses ...
Founded: 1768 |
Location:
Méréville, France
Château de la Petite Malmaison
The Château de la Petite Malmaison was built between 1803 and 1805 for Joséphine de Beauharnais, owner of the neighboring Château de Malmaison. It was a reception pavilion adjacent to a large greenhouse, since destroyed. The large greenhouse was begun in 1804 by the landscape architect Jean-Marie Morel and completed by the end of 1805 according to plans by Jean-Thomas Thibault and his partner Barth&eacu ...
Founded: 1803-1804 |
Location:
Rueil-Malmaison, France
Château de Méry
Francois Mathieu Mole (1705-1793), Chairman of the Parliament of Paris, did redesign the Renaissance castle and replant the park, it's said that it was on the advice of the naturalist Georges-Louis Buffon (1707-1788). Looted during the Revolution, the gardens were redesigned in 1846 by Louis Varé Sulpice (1808-1883). Now owned by the town, the castle park, covering an area of twenty-seven hectares, offers the public its ...
Founded: 16th century |
Location:
Méry-sur-Oise, France
Château de Ferrières
Château de Ferrières was built between 1855 and 1859 by Baron James de Rothschild. Rothschild ownership of the Château de Ferrières was passed down through the male line according to the rule of primogeniture. It is considered the largest and most luxurious 19th-century château in France. The château was designed by the British architect Joseph Paxton. The inspiration for the design ...
Founded: 1855-1859 |
Location:
Ferrières-en-Brie, France
Château du Verduron
The Château du Verduron owes its original fame to Louis Blouin, who held the prominent position of head valet in the court of Louis XIV of France from 1704 until 1715. Other distinguished owners of the property included Victorien Sardou, the French dramatist and one-time mayor of the Parisian suburb of Marly-le-Roi. The history of this property is rich and complex. In the Middle Ages, the current site of the Ch&aci ...
Founded: 1665 |
Location:
Marly-le-Roi, France
Château de Louveciennes
Château de Louveciennes is composed of the château itself and the music pavilion. The pavilion sits in the middle of a park that was designed in the 19th century. The château is an approximately cubic construction, of average size and modest appearance, which borders the chemin de la Machine (n° 6), a favourite subject of the Impressionists Camille Pissarro and Alfred Sisley. In 1684, Louis XIV ord ...
Founded: 1684 |
Location:
Louveciennes, France
Château de Guermantes
Construction of the Château de Guermantes was undertaken by Claude Viole (died 1638), whose family had possessed the fief of 'Le Chemin' since the mid-16th century. Paulin Pondre (1650-1723) purchased the property in 1698. He engaged Jules Hardouin-Mansart for renovations to the building, completed in 1710, and André Le Nôtre to lay out the garden. Pondre had become one of the most powerful fi ...
Founded: 1698-1710 |
Location:
Guermantes, France
Château de Beaumont-sur-Oise
The Château de Beaumont-sur-Oise is an ancient castle, one of the most important in the valley of the Oise. It has a rectangular Romanesque keep with buttresses 25m high and 5m wide. It was probably built by the count Mathieu (1090-1151) to replace a preceding timber structure of the castrum type which had existed from the 3rd century on this rocky outcrop. It was destroyed and rebuilt several times between the 10th ...
Founded: c. 1100 |
Location:
Beaumont-sur-Oise, France
Château d'Étampes
The Château d"Étampes was a castle in the town of Étampes. The principal remains are of the 12th-century keep, the Tour de Guinette. The Château d"Étampes was an early 10th-century stronghold of Robert the Pious, King of France, that comprised both a palace proper and motte. Between 1130 and 1150, a new castle was created overlooking the valley, culminating in a strong keep or d ...
Founded: 1130-1150 |
Location:
Étampes, France