Château de Groussay

Montfort-l'Amaury, France

The Château de Groussay was built in 1815 by the duchesse de Charest, a daughter of Louise Elisabeth de Croÿ-Havré, marquise de Tourzel, the governess of the royal enfants de France of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

The Château was purchased in 1938-39 by the French aesthete Carlos de Beistegui, who enlarged it, with the professional help of Emilio Terry. Cecil Beaton's inspiration for Henry Higgins' library in My Fair Lady was the library at Groussay.

Beistegui created new gardens, inspired by the Anglo-Chinese gardens of the 18th century and by an 18th-century copper tent in the royal gardens of Drottningholm Palace in Sweden. They feature a Chinese pagoda, a labyrinth, a theater of verdure, a Tartar tent, and other follies. The Gardens are classified by the French government as one of the Remarkable Gardens of France.

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Address

Groussay, Montfort-l'Amaury, France
See all sites in Montfort-l'Amaury

Details

Founded: 1815
Category: Castles and fortifications in France

More Information

en.wikipedia.org

Rating

4.1/5 (based on Google user reviews)

Interesting Sites Nearby


Eiffel Tower (35,8 km)
Arc de Triomphe (36,3 km)
Château de Versailles (22,1 km)
Grand Palais (37,2 km)
Les Invalides (37 km)
Musée Rodin (37,2 km)
Chartres Cathedral (44,3 km)
Musée des Beaux-Arts (44,2 km)
Monet's Garden (38,9 km)

User Reviews

Mark Woodley (5 months ago)
This chateau must have one of the best, if not the finest library ever conceived for a private home. Be sure to visit the Tartar tent, a architectural garden folly constructed of metal replicating striped fabric completed with blue & white delft tile interior. There's also a pagoda on the grounds, a colonnaded footbridge and pleasing landscapes to wander through. The baroque style theatre was added in the 1950's and performances still occur on its stage. Incredible drapery and lighting inside the theatre not to be missed. Thankfully Carlos de Beistegui e Yturbe was not lacking in imagination or money to create such an eccentric, beautiful legacy. Approximately 30 miles outside Paris.
Yacine Alami (5 months ago)
A great place to learn about French history and see an amazing castle. The garden is really beautiful and you can spend a nice sunny afternoon there. The guided visit is nice as well, but you can definitely just stroll through the castle by yourself! Live like and emperor !
Asghar Ahmad (7 months ago)
Lovely place just s shame it's not maintained to preserve its history and former glory. The gardens are not kept but you can still imagine the beauty the place had all those years ago. The interior decoration still shows through and the period features are a delight. If you get a chance to visit, go for it
Asghar Ahmad (9 months ago)
Lovely charming home that has seen a lot of change through the ages. Lately the home has not had the care to keep it presentable and the gardens are certainly not looking well kept. It's a shame as it's still very nice to visit if given the opportunity. If I was retired I would love the chance to get the gardens cleaned up and returned to former glory...
Derek May (10 months ago)
Made a big effort to try and visit this place with my Wife and Family. Tried to call them, email them, hired a car and and drove out on a Sunday but still we could not get access. A sign on the gate says visit the website, but the website has not been updated with opening hours. We were very disappointed. The village in which it is located is lovely and we had a nice time there. But be warned before you plan to visit Chateau de Groussay as you might not get in.
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Moszna Castle

The Moszna Castle is one of the best known monuments in the western part of Upper Silesia. The history of this building begins in the 17th century, although much older cellars were found in the gardens during excavations carried out at the beginning of the 20th century. Some of the investigators, including H. Barthel, claimed that those cellars could have been remnants of a presumed Templar castle, but their theory has never been proved. After World War II, further excavations discovered a medieval palisade.

The central part of the castle is an old baroque palace which was partially destroyed by fire on the night of April 2, 1896 and was reconstructed in the same year in its original form by Franz Hubert von Tiele-Winckler. The reconstruction works involved an extension of the residence. The eastern Neogothic-styled wing of the building was built by 1900, along with an adjacent orangery. In 1912-1914, the western wing was built in the Neo-Renaissance style. The architectural form of the castle contains a wide variety of styles, thus it can be generally defined as eclectic.

The height of the building, as well as its numerous turrets and spires, give the impression of verticalism. The whole castle has exactly ninety-nine turrets. Inside, it contains 365 rooms. The castle was twice visited by the German Emperor Wilhelm II. His participation in hunting during his stay at the castle was documented in a hand-written chronicle in 1911 as well as in the following year. The castle in Moszna was the residence of a Silesian family Tiele-Winckler who were industrial magnates, from 1866 until the spring of 1945 when they were forced to move to Germany and the castle was occupied by the Red Army. The period of the Soviet control caused significant damage to the castle's internal fittings in comparison to the minor damage caused by WWII.

After World War II the castle did not have a permanent owner and was the home of various institutions until 1972 when it became a convalescent home. Later it became a Public Health Care Centre for Therapies of Neuroses. Nowadays it can be visited by tourists since the health institution has moved to another building in the neighbourhood. The castle also has a chapel which is used as a concert hall. Since 1998 the castle housed a gallery in which works of various artists are presented at regular exhibitions.

Apart from the castle itself, the entire complex includes a park which has no precise boundaries and includes nearby fields, meadows and a forest. Only the main axis of the park can be characterised as geometrical. Starting from the gate, it leads along the oak and then horse-chestnut avenues, towards the castle. Further on, the park passes into an avenue of lime trees with symmetrical canals running along both sides of the path, lined with a few varieties of rhododendrons. The axis of the park terminates at the base of a former monument of Hubert von Tiele-Winckler. On the eastern side of the avenue there is a pond with an islet referred to by the owners as Easter Island. The islet is planted with needle-leaved shrubs and can be reached by a Chinese-styled bridge. The garden, as part of the whole park complex was restored slightly earlier than the castle itself. Preserved documents of 1868 state that the improvement in the garden's aesthetic quality was undertaken by Hubert von Tiele-Winckler.

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