Château de Marly

The Château de Marly (French pronunciation: [ʃato də maʁli]) was a French royal residence located in what is now Marly-le-Roi, the commune on the northern edge of the royal park. This was situated west of the palace and garden complex at Versailles. Marly-le-Roi is the town that developed to serve the château, which was demolished in 1806 after passing into private ownership and being used as a factory. The town is now a bedroom community for Paris.

At the Château of Marly, Louis XIV escaped from the formal rigors he was constructing at Versailles. Small rooms meant less company, and simplified protocol; courtiers, who fought among themselves for invitations to Marly, were housed in a revolutionary design of twelve pavilions built in matching pairs flanking the central sheets of water, which were fed one from the other by formalized cascades (illustration, right).

After the French Revolution, about 1800, the château was sold to a private owner. He demolished it in 1806 after his factory there failed. The hydraulic "machine" that pumped water for Versailles was also demolished. Only the foundation of Jules Hardouin-Mansart's small château the pavillon du Roi remains at the top of the slope in Marly park. Napoleon bought back the estate in 1807, and the park belongs to the state.

The French niche perfume house Parfums de Marly was named after Château de Marly.

Text adapted from “Château de Marly” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Château de Marly ranks #637 of 7,738 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #58 of the 469 mapped in France. Founded 1680, it is older than 24% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 580 atlas entries founded in the 17th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 12,128 times in the last 60 days, more than 94% of the atlas. 34 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Paris, 18 km away. See how France compares in the castle statistics.

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