The castle or Domaine of Montreuil, known as Domaine of Mrs Elisabeth, located in the center of Versailles, shelters a park of 7,2 hectares. Louis XVI bought it in 1783 for his sister Elisabeth de France, known as Mrs Elisabeth.
Old Mode
Seigniory as of XIIe century, Montreuil is equipped with a fortress in 1375. Entered the royal field, the field is yielded to Célestins of Paris by the king Charles VI. Then it is integrated into the field of Versailles at the time of Louis XV. The source which feeds at the time the ponds now drained, makes of it a place with the mode where the close relations of the Court make build beautiful properties of approval.
Thus in 1772, prince de Rohan-Guéméné and his wife, known as Madam de Guéméné acquire the field of Montreuil, which they increase to form a property of 8 hectares. The transformations, so much of the house than of the gardens are entrusted to the architect Alexandre Louis Étable of Brière. In 1783, following the resounding bankruptcy of Guéméné, Louis XVI buys the residence for his/her younger sister Elisabeth. It is Marie Antoinette who makes the surprise with this one of it. He having proposed a walk with Montreuil, where Mrs Elisabeth then 19 years old remembers to have played being child, the queen announces to him: “You are here on your premise”. Mrs Elisabeth remains there until 1789.
From 1784 to 1789, the buildings are put at the last style, in the neo-classic style, by the architect Jean-Jacques Huvé, future mayor of Versailles (1792-1793). This one made raise main buildings on two levels (ground floor and stage) out of stones of size, striated with horizontal and surmounted partitions gable roofs. The unit included/understood in particular a vault on circular level and zenith lighting, type then sails about it (cf vault of the Richaud Hospital by the architect Charles François Darnaudin, colleague of Huvé as inspector of the castle of Versailles), as well as a Turkish boudoir. Furniture was ordered with the cabinetmaker Jean-Baptist-Claude Sené. Parts of this furniture are preserved today at the museum of Louvre and the museum Nissim de Camondo.
The surrounding wall, along the avenue of Paris, crowned of a balustrade, was used as terrace from where one could admire the park and the garden of eight hectares arranged by Huvé in what one called the Anglo-Chinese taste (factitious cave, river, cascade, bridge, etc). Drawings of the architect, preserved at the National library, the Carnavalet museum and the Lambinet museum have the memory of this installation.
Mrs Elisabeth establishes in Montreuil a small dispensary in a part of the house for the poor of the surroundings. Those are looked after by the doctor and botanist Louis Guillaume Monnier, which makes come from the rare plants in the kitchen garden of the field. The Revolution puts an end to these occupations.
Having escaped with the parcelling out of the properties at the time of the French revolution, the Clausse family becomes about it propriétaireau beginning of the XIXe century, Charles Louis Clausse, mayor of Versailles dies there on September 10th, 1831.
The buildings are deeply transformed, undoubtedly under the Restoration or the Monarchy of July, to give the configuration which one currently knows.
Modern time
Between the two last wars, important restorations are carried out by the owner, Jean-Baptiste Chantrell. In 1955, his/her Lydie daughter sells the property at a real estate company. The house of Mrs Elisabeth belongs since 1984 to the general advice of Yvelines. The Orangery, acquired by the department in 1997, is used as place of temporary exhibitions.
Description
The current dwelling is composed of a rectangular main building of two stages on flanked ground floor of two houses. The frontage is decorated of a peristyle with four columns. House of origin, remains only the part initially acquired by Guéméné with only three parts of the apartment of Mrs Elisabeth: the room which was to be his but where it forever lying (not being major, it was each evening to turn over to sleep with the castle), the Turkish living room and the room of the harpsichord. Certain elements of decoration are re-employment.
In addition to the Orangery, the field was bordered by a dairy and a nasty trick now disappeared.
The visit of the park is free.
The orangery (for its frontages and roofs) been the subject of an inscription under the historic buildings since October 23rd, 1980.
See: http://www.versailles-tourisme.com/en