Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

Issy Castle, now extinct, was an iconic building located in Issy-les-Moulineaux (Hautes-de-Seine). Its origins date back to the 13th century with two major properties: the old Château de Villepreux and the Fief de Mérainviller. In the 17th century, the estate took the name of Petit Olympe after its acquisition in 1606 by Queen Margot, who stayed there to escape the Parisian plague. At his death in 1615, the estate was sold in 1622 to M. de Choisy, before being divided and partially bought by Macé Bertrand de la Bazinière in 1660.

In 1681, President Denis Talon bought the land and entrusted architect Pierre Bullet with the construction of a classical castle, while André Le Nôtre and Pierre Desgots built the gardens and fountains. When Talon died in 1698, the estate was bought in 1699 by François Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Conti (the Grand Conti), who carried out important works there, including a peristyle façade and a bathhouse for his son. The castle became a place of lavish festivals under his widow, Marie-Thérèse, described in 1749 as one of the most beautiful houses in the vicinity of Paris.

The estate remained in the Conti family until 1776, before passing into the hands of Adrien Jules Gaultier Designy, then of the Princess of Chimay, guillotined in 1793 during the Revolution. Confiscated as a national good, the castle declined in the 19th century: it was transformed into a hydrotherapeutic establishment in 1852, then into a subdivision in 1866. It was burned in 1871 during the Paris Commune and finally demolished in 1910. Only an entrance pavilion, orangery, dovecote and a fountain (classified in 1933) remain today.

Some architectural elements, such as the pediment and the facade columns, were saved by Auguste Rodin in 1907-1908 and relocated to his villa in Meudon. The park, partly preserved, now forms Henri-Barbusse Municipal Park. The remaining pavilion houses the city's history gallery, within the French Museum of the Map to play.

The castle of Issy illustrates the evolution of aristocratic residences in Île-de-France, marked by the fascist of the eighteenth century, revolutionary upheavals and modern urbanization. Its gardens, designed by Le Nôtre, were renowned for their harmonious integration with the surrounding landscape, a rare feature for the time.

External links