Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, located in Maincy in Seine-et-Marne, is an architectural jewel of the 3rd quarter of the 17th century (1658-1661), commissioned by Nicolas Fouquet, Superintendent of Finance of Louis XIV. This monument illustrates the alliance of major talents of the period: architect Louis Le Vau, painter Charles Le Brun, landscape architect André Le Nôtre, and master mason Michel Villedo. Fouquet, wishing to create an estate rivalling the royal residences, chose a strategic site between Vincennes and Fontainebleau, where he had a modest medieval chastel shaved to erect this classical palace.

The building of the castle and its gardens was a technical and artistic feat. The Nôtre designed revolutionary gardens, playing on optical perspectives and illusions, with parts of embroidery, basins, and a cave decorated with sculptures. Le Brun decorated the interiors with allegorical frescoes, such as Le Triomphe de la Fidelité in Fouquet's bedroom, while Le Vau innova with a "double body" plan, organizing the pieces in parallel threads. The oval living room, central room, symbolizes this architectural audacity.

The peak of Vaux-le-Vicomte culminated with the sumptuous feast of 17 August 1661, organized in honour of Louis XIV by Fouquet and his intendant François Vatel. The latter orchestrated shows, fireworks, and a lavish dinner, marking the story with his fascist. However, this demonstration of wealth precipitated Fouquet's disgrace: arrested three weeks later for malfeasance, his property was seized. The castle, emptied of its treasures, passed into the hands of creditors before being bought in 1673 by his widow, Marie-Madeleine de Castille.

In the 18th century, the estate changed several times, including the Marshal de Villars, who added military elements such as trophies, and the Duke of Choiseul-Praslin, who modernized the apartments without altering the gardens. The French Revolution spared the castle, saved in extremis by the donation of its decorations to the Republic in 1793. In the 19th century, the Choiseul-Praslin retained it despite partial sales of furniture, until the Duke Charles-Félix committed a crime of passion there in 1847, causing its closure.

In 1875, the industrialist Alfred Sommier acquired the estate at auction and undertook a colossal restoration, entrusting the works to architect Gabriel-Hippolyte Destailler and landscaper Achille Duchêne. The Sommier, then their descendants the Vogüe, preserved Vaux-le-Vicomte by reopening it to the public in 1968. Today, the castle, classified as a Historical Monument, attracts 300,000 visitors annually with its illuminated gardens, candlelit dinners, and its role as a cinematic decor, as for Versailles (2015) or Le Roi Soleil (2005).

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