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Palace

Château Villette

France · 17th century

Founded
c. 1650
Architect
François Mansart
Heritage status
monument historique inscrit · classified historical monument
Location
Condécourt
Coordinates
49.0319°, 1.9394°
Links
Wikimedia Commons
Open on the map →Official website ↗Wikipedia ↗
Château Villette in France
Photo: Olga-Kov · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Description

The Château de Villette (French pronunciation: [ʃato d(ə) vilɛt]) is a château (a French manor house) located in Condécourt, France, 40 km (24.8 mi) northwest of Paris. There are numerous outbuildings including a chapel and adjacent reception room, horse stable and greenhouse.

More than 185 acres (75 ha) of garden were designed by André Le Nôtre and spread out behind the château in the central axis with two rectangular lakes filled with swans, ducks, birds and fishes, as well as a cascade and fountain that resembles the one at Louis XIV's Château de Marly, surmounted by Neptune. The grounds provide outdoor activities for the château guests, including jogging, biking, and hunting. There is also a swimming pool and a tennis court. Jules Hardouin-Mansart and Le Nôtre designed the Palace of Versailles at the same time as they designed the Château de Villette in the 1680s. Therefore, Villette was nicknamed Le petit Versailles ("the little Versailles").

After WWII, the park was damaged (including by bombs - during the Second World War, on Sunday, August 27, 1944, around 4 p.m., the estate was bombed, destroying the chapel and the orangery, which were immediately rebuilt) and was “entièrement restauré” in 1948 under the direction of the landscape/parks specialist Ferdinand Duprat.

During the 1960s, the estate was restored by its owner (Robert Gérard) and then sold by his heirs to Chinese-American Olivia Hsu Decker in 1998.

A preliminary study for restoring central parts of the domain: the Cour des Communs, Cour d’Honneur, the Parterre, and the Bosquets of the cascade.

Preparation of a tender dossier (Dossier de Consultation des Entreprises). Assistance to follow up the work on site. The program of intervention for that restoration included:

Hydraulic work (cleaning out the two ponds / water bodies; restoration of hydraulic control structures) Restoring the landscape features: Reestablishing the Grand Perspective East-West Replanting the alignments at the Cour des Communs Restoring the Parterre (lawn pieces cut) Refilling the bosquets known as the cascade bosquets.

Major restoration campaign from about 2014, under architect-decorator Jacques Garcia.

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

In the rankings

Château Villette ranks #4,952 of 9,902 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #406 of the 954 mapped in France. Founded c. 1650, it is older than 26% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 755 atlas entries founded in the 17th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 2,114 times in the last 60 days, more than 75% of the atlas. 21 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Paris, 36 km away. See how France compares in the castle statistics.

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