Château d'Abondant is a

château A château (, ; plural: châteaux) is a manor house, or palace, 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 re ...

in Abondant, in the

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, built in the mid 17th century and significantly remodelled and enlarged in the 1750s under the direction of Jean Mansart de Jouy. The Château was designated as a French

historic monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, historical ...

in 1928 and in 2018, it was restored and converted into apartments.

History

The first recorded owner is Pierre Bigot, "Lord of Fay and forest Houdan." In 1485, Guillaume La Guiry is mentioned as Lord of Fay and Abondant, and, in 1560, Jean Mangot,

Ensign Ensign most often refers to: * Ensign (flag), a flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality * Ensign (rank), a navy (and former army) officer rank Ensign or The Ensign may also refer to: Places * Ensign, Alberta, Alberta, Canada * Ensign, Ka ...

; the land passed to his son Louis Mangot, who still owned the property in 1618. In the first quarter of the seventeenth century, Joachim de Bellengreville,

Grand Provost of France The Maison du Roi (, 'King's Household') was the royal household of the King of France. It comprised the military, domestic, and religious entourage of the French royal family during the Ancien Régime and Bourbon Restoration in France, Bourbon R ...

, acquired the seigniory of Abondant. In 1645, his widow, Marie de La Noue (a granddaughter of

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

Capt. François de la Noue), traded the property with Jacques Bouchet de Sourches,

Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivale ...

of Saint-Martin of Troarn, for the estate of Montguichet, located near

Gagny Gagny () is a commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. Geography Gagny is located 10 km to the east of Paris. Until the law of 10 July 1964, the commune was part of the department of Sein ...

Bouchet de Sourches years

Around this time Jacques Bouchet de Sourches acquired the property, the château was built. In 1699, the estate went to the courtier Louis-François du Bouchet de Sourches. When he died in 1746, it was passed on to his son,

Louis II du Bouchet de Sourches Louis II du Bouchet de Sourches, Marquess of Sourches (25 November 1711 – 9 April 1788) was a French nobleman, soldier and senior courtier. Biography Sourches was the only son of Louis I du Bouchet de Sourches, Marquess of Sourches (1666–1746 ...

, Grand Prévôt of France. In the 1750s, Louis II hired architect Jean Mansart de Jouy to transform the residence into a four-storey château in the

Louis XIII style The Louis XIII style or ''Louis Treize'' was a fashion in French art and French architecture, architecture, especially affecting the visual arts, visual and decorative arts. Its distinctness as a period in the history of French art has much to do ...

, set on 200 acres of landscaped grounds. The main building was significantly enlarged with two symmetrical pavilions added to each end, along with kitchens and a grand staircase. In the right pavilion was a large salon, known as the Great Salon, which opened onto the park. The room had "a square design with curved angles, and was lit by three windows on the

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

side, and three others on the park side." Louis' son, Louis François, the Marquis de Tourzel, inherited the estate, and his wife, Marie, a music lover, built a theatre on the grounds. Louis François was killed in a hunting accident in 1786. His widow, Louise-Élisabeth de Croÿ survived the French Revolution, and under the Restoration, she was made

Duchess of Tourzel Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and above sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they a ...

in 1816. The de Tourzel branch died out in 1845, and, through marriage, the estate passed to the Pérusse des Cars family. In 1902, Louis Albert Philibert Augustin, 4th Duc des Cars, sold the estate (inherited through his wife). Before the château was sold, he dismantled the Grand Salon which was reassembled in 1903 in the new Parisian mansion of the Claire de Vallombrosa, Countess Lafond and reassembled again with some modifications in 1955. The salon was dismantled again in 1988 and reconstituted at the

Musée du Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

in 1994 where it remains.

Harjes years

In 1920, Paris-based American banker Henry Herman Harjes acquired the château from the Duchesse de Vallombrosa. The château was among a trio of prominent châteaux located near

Dreux Dreux () is a Communes of France, commune in the Eure-et-Loir Departments of France, department in northern France. Geography Dreux lies on the small river Blaise (river), Blaise, a tributary of the Eure (river), Eure, about 35 km north of Cha ...

, 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.Château d'Anet The Château d'Anet is a château near Dreux, in the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France, built by Philibert de l'Orme from 1547 to 1552 for Diane de Poitiers, the mistress of Henry II of France. It was built on the former château at the ...

and Château Saint-Georges Motel (later owned by

Consuelo Vanderbilt Consuelo Vanderbilt-Balsan (formerly Consuelo Spencer-Churchill, Duchess of Marlborough; born Consuelo Vanderbilt; 2 March 1877 – 6 December 1964) was an American socialite and member of the Vanderbilt family. Her first marriage to the 9th D ...

). near Paris. In 1923, his 25-year-old daughter Hope was killed in a riding accident at the château. Harjes, who was credited with introducing

polo Polo is a stick and ball game that is played on horseback as a traditional field sport. It is one of the world's oldest known team sports, having been adopted in the Western world from the game of Chovgan (), which originated in ancient ...

to France, died during a polo match in 1926 and the château and its estate was put up for sale. The château features were described as:

The first floor is laid out lavishly for entertainment and gracious living. On the second and third floors are seventeen master bedrooms and fourteen baths, many of them modernised. On the fourth floor are the servants' rooms. The outbuildings include a garage for eight cars, stables for thirty horses and kennels which have been used in the past for a pack of stag hounds. There also is a large group of farm buildings, including a modern dairy.

Koenigswarter years

In 1937, his son Henry sold the château to Baron Jules de Koenigswarter of Paris and his wife, the former Pannonica "Nica" Rothschild. When the French government surrendered to the Germans on 22 June 1940, Baron de Koenigswarters went to England to volunteer with the Free French Army. Nica remained at the château, "opening her doors to passing refugees and evacuees." Nica and their children were later forced to flee, first to England, and later to the United States, where she settled permanently.

Recent history

In the spring of 1945, the Château housed the El Alamein Center of the 1st French Free Forces. In 1951, the estate was modified into a medical and social institution dedicated to taking care of

refugee A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

s and stateless elderly. A new

gerontology Gerontology ( ) is the study of the social, culture, cultural, psychology, psychological, cognitive, and biology, biological aspects of aging. The word was coined by Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov in 1903, from the Ancient Greek, Greek ('), meaning "o ...

unit was built in the grounds in 1991. In 2018, restoration work supervised by Daniel Levevre, chief architect of buildings in France, was completed converting the Château into fifty-four apartments.

Gallery

Photographs of the Château in 2016, pre-renovation. 13230320 loiseaulybre.jpg, 13230178 loiseaulybre.jpg, 13178856 loiseaulybre.jpg, 13177605 loiseaulybre.jpg, 13177700 loiseaulybre.jpg, 13174212 loiseaulybre.jpg,

References

;Notes ;Sources

External links

Château d'Abondant
at http://www.frenchchateau.net
Château d'Abondant
at Kacius invest {{DEFAULTSORT:Chateau, Abondant Abondant Monuments historiques of Eure-et-Loir d'Abondant