The Château d'Anet is a

château A château (; plural: châteaux) is a manor house or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking regions. Nowad ...

near

Dreux Dreux () is a commune in the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France. Geography Dreux lies on the small river Blaise, a tributary of the Eure, about 35 km north of Chartres. Dreux station has rail connections to Argentan, Paris and Gra ...

, in the

Eure-et-Loir Eure-et-Loir (, locally: ) is a French department, named after the Eure and Loir rivers. It is located in the region of Centre-Val de Loire. In 2019, Eure-et-Loir had a population of 431,575.department in northern France, built by

Philibert de l'Orme Philibert de l'Orme () (3-9 June 1514 – 8 January 1570) was a French architect and writer, and one of the great masters of French Renaissance architecture. His surname is also written De l'Orme, de L'Orme, or Delorme. Biography Early car ...

from 1547 to 1552 for

Diane de Poitiers Diane de Poitiers (9 January 1500 – 25 April 1566) was a French noblewoman and prominent courtier. She wielded much power and influence as King Henry II's royal mistress and adviser until his death. Her position increased her wealth and family' ...

, the mistress of

Henry II of France Henry II (french: Henri II; 31 March 1519 – 10 July 1559) was King of France from 31 March 1547 until his death in 1559. The second son of Francis I and Duchess Claude of Brittany, he became Dauphin of France upon the death of his elder brot ...

. It was built on the former château at the center of the domains of Diane's deceased husband, Louis de Brézé, seigneur d'Anet, Marshal of Normandy and Master of the Hunt. The château is especially noted for its exterior, notably the '' Fountain of Diana'', a statue of Diane de Poitiers as Diana, goddess of the hunt, and the '' Nymph of Anet'', a relief by Benvenuto Cellini over the portal. Anet was the site of one of the first Italianate parterre gardens centered on the building's façade in France; the garden designer in charge was Jacques Mollet, who trained his son at Anet,

Claude Mollet Claude Mollet (ca. 1564 – shortly before 1649), ''premier jardinier du Roy'' — first gardener to three French kings, Henri IV, Louis XIII and the young Louis XIV — was a member of the Mollet dynasty of French garden designers in t ...

, destined to become royal gardener to three French kings.

History

Era of Diane de Poitiers and her descendants

The château, which faced the south, was built partly upon the foundations and cellar vaults of a feudal castle that had been dismantled by

Charles V Charles V may refer to: * Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558) * Charles V of Naples (1661–1700), better known as Charles II of Spain * Charles V of France (1338–1380), called the Wise * Charles V, Duke of Lorraine (1643–1690) * Inf ...

and was subsequently rebuilt as a Late Gothic manor of brick and stone. The name comes from Simon d'Anet, who owned the chateau in the twelfth century. In 1444, it was given to Pierre de Brézé by Charles VII, in return for Pierre's services in expelling the English from

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

. The château of Diane was constructed between 1548 and 1552. It was formed around three courts, with the ''

Cour d'honneur A ''cour d'honneur'' (; ; german: Ehrenhof) is the principal and formal approach and forecourt of a large building. It is usually defined by two secondary wings projecting forward from the main central block (''corps de logis''), sometimes wi ...

'' at the center. The kitchens were located off the right-hand court, while the left-hand court accessed an ''

Orangerie An orangery or orangerie was a room or a dedicated building on the grounds of fashionable residences of Northern Europe from the 17th to the 19th centuries where orange and other fruit trees were protected during the winter, as a very larg ...

'' and a

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

known as the ''Gouvernement'' – so called because it housed the ''Gouverneur'' of the estate. The ''Gouvernement'' also housed the ''Chambre de Trésor'' (treasury) where the deeds of property and archives of the de Brézé family were kept. Beyond the nucleus of the château were the formal gardens, a square area divided into

parterres A ''parterre'' is a part of a formal garden constructed on a level substrate, consisting of symmetrical patterns, made up by plant beds, low hedges or coloured gravels, which are separated and connected by paths. Typically it was the part of ...

and surrounded by galleries. Attached to the gallery on the north side, opposite the Chateau, was a suite of baths. Northeast of the right-hand court, also known as the ''Cour de Charles le Mauvais'', were the stables. Even further north from the stables was the '' Hôtel-Dieu'', where the sick servants and dependents of the estate were treated. West of the left-hand court, the ''Cour de gauche'', was Diane's mortuary chapel, as well as an

aviary An aviary is a large enclosure for confining birds, although bats may also be considered for display. Unlike birdcages, aviaries allow birds a larger living space where Bird flight, they can fly; hence, aviaries are also sometimes known as fligh ...

and

heronry A heronry, sometimes called a heron rookery, is a breeding ground for herons. Notable heronries Although their breeding territories are often on more protected small islands in lakes or retention ponds, herons breed in heronries (or also calle ...

. File:Collection- A. D. White Architectural Photographs, Cornell University Library (3486777236).jpg, Bird's-eye view, published by

François L’Anglois François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis. People with the given name * Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of Letters" * Francis II of France, King ...

in the early 17th century File:Le Premier Tome de l'Architecture MET DP109532.jpg, Design for the entrance portal, published in

Philibert de L'Orme Philibert de l'Orme () (3-9 June 1514 – 8 January 1570) was a French architect and writer, and one of the great masters of French Renaissance architecture. His surname is also written De l'Orme, de L'Orme, or Delorme. Biography Early car ...

's ''Le Premier Tome de l'Architecture'' (1567) File:Floorplan of Chateau d'Anet, from Les plus excellents bastiments de France MET DP834468.jpg, Site plan, engraved by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau for his second volume of ''Les Plus Excellents Bastiments de France'' (1579) File:Kapelle ensba paris 02.jpg, Frontispiece for the '' corps-de-logis'', now at the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centur ...

in Paris File:Château d'Anet - Anet - Eure-et-Loir - France - Mérimée PA00096955 (29).jpg, Replica of the '' Fountain of Diana'' at Anet File:Fountain of Diana of Anet, from the second volume of 'Les plus excellents bastiments de France' by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau (adjusted).jpg, ''Fountain of Diana'', engraved by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau (1579) File:Château d'Anet - Anet - Eure-et-Loir - France - Mérimée PA00096955 (4).jpg, Replica of Benvenuto Cellini's relief, the '' Nymph of Anet'', located over the portal File:Château d'Anet - Anet - Eure-et-Loir - France - Mérimée PA00096955 (65).jpg, Coat of arms

Chapel

The now free-standing chapel of Anet was built in 1549-1552 as an appendage on the east side of the east wing of the ''

cour d'honneur A ''cour d'honneur'' (; ; german: Ehrenhof) is the principal and formal approach and forecourt of a large building. It is usually defined by two secondary wings projecting forward from the main central block (''corps de logis''), sometimes wi ...

''. It was designed on a centralized

Greek cross The Christian cross, with or without a figure of Christ included, is the main religious symbol of Christianity. A cross with a figure of Christ affixed to it is termed a ''crucifix'' and the figure is often referred to as the ''corpus'' ( ...

floor plan under a diagonally-coffered dome. The original entrance was on the courtyard façade of the east wing, which was subsequently demolished. It has a porch with widely spaced paired

Ionic columns The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite ...

between towers crowned by pyramidal spires. The stained-glass windows were made around 1904 by Charles Lorin from

Chartres Chartres () is the prefecture of the Eure-et-Loir department in the Centre-Val de Loire region in France. It is located about southwest of Paris. At the 2019 census, there were 170,763 inhabitants in the metropolitan area of Chartres (as de ...

. File:Chateau Anet - chapelle.jpg, Chapel entrance façade File:Chateau d'anet 001.jpg, Side-view of the chapel File:Château d'Anet - Anet - Eure-et-Loir - France - Mérimée PA00096955 (52).jpg, The chapel's spiral-coffered dome, designed by Philibert de L'Orme File:Chateau Anet - intérieur chapelle.jpg, Interior of chapel File:Château d'Anet - Anet - Eure-et-Loir - France - Mérimée PA00096955 (51).jpg, Stained-glass window by Charles Lorin

Mortuary chapel

There is also the mortuary chapel, built according to

' last wishes to contain her tomb, commissioned from Claude de Foucques by Diane's daughter, the Duchesse d'Aumale. In 1581,

Henri III Henry III (french: Henri III, né Alexandre Édouard; pl, Henryk Walezy; lt, Henrikas Valua; 19 September 1551 – 2 August 1589) was King of France from 1574 until his assassination in 1589, as well as King of Poland and Grand Duke of L ...

and his mother

Catherine de' Medici Catherine de' Medici ( it, Caterina de' Medici, ; french: Catherine de Médicis, ; 13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589) was an Florentine noblewoman born into the Medici family. She was Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to King ...

came to the chapel to attend the baptism of the infant son of Charles, duc d'Aumale. File:Floorplan, Facade and Cross Section of one of the Chapels at Chateau d'Anet, from "Les plus excellents bastiments de France" MET DP834457.jpg, Chapel entrance façade File:Floorplan, Facade and Cross Section of one of the Chapels at Chateau d'Anet, from "Les plus excellents bastiments de France" MET DP834456.jpg, Floor plan File:Floorplan, Facade and Cross Section of one of the Chapels at Chateau d'Anet, from "Les plus excellents bastiments de France" MET DP834458.jpg, Transverse section File:Château d'Anet - Anet - Eure-et-Loir - France - Mérimée PA00096955 (86).jpg, Entrance façade File:Château d'Anet - Anet - Eure-et-Loir - France - Mérimée PA00096955 (75).jpg, Interior view to the north File:Château d'Anet - Anet - Eure-et-Loir - France - Mérimée PA00096955 (83).jpg, interior view to the south

Subsequent history

In 1576, Diane's daughter Louise de Brézé transferred ownership of the château to her son Charles, Duke of Aumale. Charles constructed a convent for the

Cordeliers The Society of the Friends of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (french: Société des Amis des droits de l'homme et du citoyen), mainly known as Cordeliers Club (french: Club des Cordeliers), was a populist political club during the French ...

in 1587 at the western edge of the Anet parkland. Some years later, Charles was implicated in a conspiracy against Henry IV; he fled into exile in 1595. In his absence, the

Parlement of Paris The Parliament of Paris (french: Parlement de Paris) was the oldest ''parlement'' in the Kingdom of France, formed in the 14th century. It was fixed in Paris by Philip IV of France in 1302. The Parliament of Paris would hold sessions inside the ...

condemned him to death and confiscated all his property. It declared that the Château d'Anet be demolished and the forests of the estate felled. However, Henry IV intervened and saved the château from destruction. In 1610, the Duke was bankrupted by his heavy debts and one of his creditors, Marie of Luxembourg, Duchess of Penthièvre, laid claim to the château. Her ownership was confirmed by the Parlement in 1615. The property's ownership then passed to Marie's daughter Françoise de Lorraine and her husband César de Vendôme, an illegitimate son of Henry IV. The property was owned, or at least occupied, by Louis Joseph, Duke of Vendôme. Louis Joseph was very fond of the château, entertaining his friends there in luxury. Guests included the poets Guillaume Amfrye de Chaulieu and Chapelle. Vendôme undertook major alterations which removed many original features and decoration from the Renaissance. Only the bedchamber of Diane was spared from the redecoration of the apartments. A third story was added to the ''corps de logis'' to increase the accommodation and the wing on the left-hand side was rebuilt.Lenoir, Alexandre, "Description du Château d'Anet", ''Memoires de l'Académie Celtique: ou, Recherches sur les antiquités celtiques, gauloises et françaises.'' Vol. 5 (1810); p. 514 The gardens, which had fallen into neglect over the years, were destroyed, and the redesign of the parkland entrusted to André Le Nôtre. The galleries and bath building surrounding the old gardens were demolished; so too were the ''orangerie'', aviary, and heronry. The stables and ''Hôtel-Dieu'' were also demolished and rebuilt in new locations, to make way for intersecting canals. The canals fed two windmills, one of which was built on the site of the old ''Hôtel-Dieu''. One of the canals was dedicated to

carp Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish from the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. While carp is consumed in many parts of the world, they are generally considered an invasive species in parts of ...

and divided into two compartments by a wall of water lilies. In 1686, the Grand Dauphin visited Anet for 8 days, where he was sumptuously entertained by Louis-Joseph. The festivities cost the Duke of Vendôme more than 100,000 ''

livres The (; ; abbreviation: ₶.) was one of numerous currencies used in medieval France, and a unit of account (i.e., a monetary unit used in accounting) used in Early Modern France. The 1262 monetary reform established the as 20 , or 80.88 gr ...

'', so much money that

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ve ...

would only consent to his son returning for another visit on the condition that the expenses be paid by himself. The property later belonged to many of Louis XIV's descendants: Louise-Françoise de Bourbon died here in 1743, she was a daughter of the famous illegitimate son of Louis XIV, the Duc du Maine. His sons the prince des Dombes and comte d'Eu lived here when away from Versailles. It was later owned by the fabulously wealthy duc de Penthièvre, first cousin of the prince and the comte. The château wasn't pillaged during the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are consider ...

, but

' remains were removed to a pauper's ditch in the parish cemetery and the rich contents of the château, which were the property of King

Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was e ...

's cousin,

Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, duc de Penthièvre Louis may refer to: * Louis (coin) * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also Derived or associated terms * Lewis ...

, were sold at auction as ''biens nationaux''. A large part of the château was subsequently demolished, but only after

Alexandre Lenoir Marie Alexandre Lenoir (27 December 1761 – 11 June 1839) was a French archaeologist. Self-taught, he devoted himself to saving France's historic monuments, sculptures and tombs from the ravages of the French Revolution, notably those of Saint-D ...

was able to salvage some architectural elements for his Musée des Monuments Français (presently situated in the

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

). The restoration of the château itself, in pitiable condition, was due to comte , who purchased it in 1840 and undertook a colossal program of restoration. Under financial duress, Caraman sold the château in 1860 to , who continued the restoration, purchasing furnishings and works of art that were thought to be originally from the château. The set of

tapestry Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads ma ...

hangings woven for the château, in Paris, to cartoons by Jean Cousin, forming a ''History of Diana'' in compliment to Diane de Poitiers, is now widely scattered; it set a precedent for suites of Diana-themed tapestries that remained popular into the 18th century. The elements were reinstalled at Anet after World War II. In 1889, the ''château'' is designated by the French government as a protected ''

monument historique ''Monument historique'' () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which National Heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a coll ...

'' (

national heritage site A national heritage site is a heritage site having a value that has been registered by a governmental agency as being of national importance to the cultural heritage or history of that country. Usually such sites are listed in a heritage registe ...

).La plateforme ouverte du patrimoine - Château d'Anet (in French)
/ref> The castle was used as a filming location in the 1965 James Bond film '' Thunderball'' and 1976 film ''

The Pink Panther Strikes Again ''The Pink Panther Strikes Again'' is a 1976 comedy film. The fifth film in ''The Pink Panther'' series, its plot picks up three years after '' The Return of the Pink Panther'', with former Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) about to ...

''. The entry pavilion for Chateau d'Anet was the inspiration for the façade of

Robert Venturi Robert Charles Venturi Jr. (June 25, 1925 – September 18, 2018) was an American architect, founding principal of the firm Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, and one of the major architectural figures of the twentieth century. Together with ...

's 1966 Guild House for the Elderly in Philadelphia.

Gallery

File:Anet 01 (RaBoe).jpg, Anet today File:Château Anet wiki.jpg, The portal File:Anet cour du château4.JPG, The park

References

External links

Official Château d' Anet website

1867, at the Kyoto University Library website {{Authority control

Anet Anet () is a commune in the Eure-et-Loir department in the Centre-Val de Loire region of north-central France. It lies 14 km north-northeast of Dreux between the rivers Eure and Vesgre, the latter flowing into the former some 4 km no ...

Châteaux with Renaissance gardens in France French Renaissance architecture Historic house museums in Centre-Val de Loire

Houses completed in 1552 1552 establishments in France Renaissance architecture in France Monuments historiques of Eure-et-Loir