The House of the Italians in Versailles, sometimes called wrongly House of the Italian musicians, is a house of style rubble, set up in 1752 with 15 rue Champ-Lagarde in Versailles by Jacques Hardouin-Mansart (1711-1778), for the countess of Argenson marries separate of the count d' Argenson. Protected under the historic buildings, it is since 1986 the seat of the compagnonnic Union of the companions of the turn of France of the plain duties.
The house under Louis XIV
It is in 1686 and 1691 qu ' Antonio Bagniera, castrato Italian of the Vault of the king, acquired several parts of ground with Montreuil, village located then close to Versailles (today one of its districts). In 1691, his/her friend Chabanceau of the Bar, ordinary officer of the Music of the king, made him gift of his house of music located in the vicinity, house which was used as embryo at the future house. This house was then composed of a covered circular living room, inside, of a cupola and tiles outside, opened of 3 crossed and a French window.
In 1708, this house was increased by two side wings while the field was enclosed walls. This same year, Bagniera decided to bequeath its property to its fellow-members and friendly castrati: Giuseppe Nardi, Filippo Santoni and Tomaso Carli which had taken part in its constitution.
The house under Louis XV
Nardi, Santoni and Bagniera died there respectively in 1726,1733 and 1741. The house remained then between the hands of Carli and Antonio Ridolfi, the last come. They yielded the property in July 1748 to François-Eustace de Gournay, police chief of the Wars, which yielded it in its turn in April 1751 in Anne Larcher, countess of Argenson, marries of the Minister for the War of Louis XV.
The house was then in fort bad condition, having been hardly maintained since its construction, especially since the acquisition of Gournay, too occupied by its obligations. Obligations which had led it in North Africa in order to acquire barbs for the stud farms of the king whose minister D' Argenson was the director. As it is seen, De Gournay was well-known of this family. The countess of Argenson thus decided to make entirely rebuild the house with her taste. She indicated for this purpose the architect Jacques Hardouin-Mansart de Sagonne who then set up the Saint-Louis parish of Versailles (completed in 1754). Especially, it set up for the son of the countess, the marquis de Voyer, the castle of Asnières, located in edge of the Seine (1750-1752). It is on the councils of this one, man of taste, that the countess made choice of Mansart.
The construction of the new house was entrusted to the contractor Jean Rondel, well-known of the architect, since it was one of the contractors of Saint-Louis of Versailles. The inventory after death of Rondel indeed gives a report on sums which had by the countess for this house. One is all the more convinced of the total rebuilding of this one that the description given by the sale of November 1759 to the countess of Marsan, controlling Children of France, is quite different from that of the sale of 1751. It will be observed in addition that fasten them laid out above bays the house are the certified copies of another contemporary realization of Mansart: the castle of Jossigny (1753, current Seine-et-Marne). Fasten signed in both cases, Nicolas Pineau, ornemanist appointed of the architect and author of the ornaments of the Saint-Louis church. One also finds in this house and this castle, the sets of curves and counter-curves of borominniens spirit, frequent in the achievements of Mansart (house of the ladies from Saint-Chaumont to Paris (1734); church Saint-Louis (1742-1754) in particular).
This house constituted for the countess, her residence of Versailles at the same time as its “small house”, according to the expression of time, i.e. its gallant house. It indeed sheltered its loves with the marquis de Valfons, his lover. The count d' Argenson also laid out him of a gallant house at the village of Montreuil, side of the avenue of Saint-Cloud, where the countess of Estrades came to find it. Since 1728, the couple was indeed separated from body, each one carrying out its life as good seems to him. The sale of 1759 comprises in appendix a movable state which allows to know the exact distribution and the decoration of the house.
The countess of Marsan remained there of 1759 to 1776.
The house under Louis XVI
It yielded it, in October of this year 1776, in Louis-Guillaume Lemonnier, first ordinary doctor of the king and professor of botany to the Botanical garden in Paris, which did of it one of the high places of the French botany of the XVIIIe century. In addition to the various species of trees planted in the garden of the house, Lemonnier laid out a greenhouse at the end of this one which it will not have of cease to modify to accommodate its many varieties of plants, as the inventory testifies some after death to his wife in 1793. It is here that Lemonnier will train several botanists travellers, particularly André Michaux, who had initially been plowman the farm of Satory to Versailles. The garden of Lemonnier will remain, until its dismantling in the middle of the XIXe century, the botanical garden of the town of Versailles. It gave rise to the horticultural vocation of the village of Montreuil which will remain until the middle of the years 1960. Lemonnier, who made him also house, his residence of Versailles, made establish on the left side of the court, the buildings now visible of which extension on the side of the garden. Extension which contained the new dining room.
The house after Louis XVI
With died of Lemonnier in 1799, the house échut with his/her three nieces. Two of them yielded their share to their older sister, Renee-Francoise-Adelaide, wife of the senator Joseph-Louis of the Barn. The beautiful garden of their uncle was gradually dismantled as from the years 1800. In 1822, the Viscount of Lonjon, last husband of Renee-Francoise-Adelaide, sold the house to the nursery gardener Jean-Théobald Déodor. The heirs to this one, his wife and her three sons, started the parcelling out of the field so dearly consisted Lemonnier: it then included almost the totality of the triangle consisted the streets Fields-Lagarde, Pasteur and of Condamines. The point of the triangle on the side of the current Rameau college passed to the municipality into 1881 which establishes in the old greenhouses of Lemonnier, a school, greenhouses which will disappear in the years 1950 during the rebuilding of this one.
The house nowadays
The house of the Italians passed with hand in hand until its acquisition by the town of Versailles in December 1978, acquisition which put an end to the joint possession which then threatened to make it disappear, for lack of maintenance. Conceded initially for 40 years, realizing work, to the Regional Federation Compagnonnique of the trades of the buildings, the house returned in May 1986 to the Compagnonnique Union of the Companions of the Tour de France of the Duties Linked according to the same conditions. It was then restored under the direction of Mr. Rochette, architect as a chief of the historic buildings, who applied to it decorations of false marbles of Italian spirit without relationship with the decorations of origin. The unit was inaugurated by André Damien, mayor of Versailles, in September 1989.