Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The national estate of Saint-Cloud, located mainly on the eponymous commune and partly on Marnes-la-Coquette, Sèvres and Ville-d'Avray, came into being in 1577 when Catherine de Medici acquired the Hotel d'Aulnay for her drinking water source. She donated it to Jérôme de Gondi, whose family enlarged and embellished the estate until its sale in 1658 to Louis XIV, who offered it to his brother Philippe d'Orléans, says Monsieur. The latter radically changed the estate from 5 to 460 hectares, and entrusted the gardens to André Le Nôtre and the castle to Jules Hardouin-Mansart. The park became a place of gruesome festivals and reception of European elites, marked by tragic events such as the assassination of Henry III in 1589 on the scene, or the death of Henrytte of England in 1670.

In the 18th century, the estate passed into the hands of Orléans, including the Regent Philip d'Orléans, then Louis-Philippe-Joseph, who organized in 1784 a balloon flight in the presence of the King of Sweden. Marie-Antoinette, seduced by the site, acquired in 1785 and made interior changes, but the French Revolution saved the estate, which was classified as a national property in 1794 to be preserved. He became the stage of the coup d'état of the 18 Brumaire (1799) when Napoleon Bonaparte, from the gallery of Apollo and orangery, overturned the Executive Board. Under the Empire, the castle hosts major events such as Napoleon I's marriage with Marie-Louise of Austria in 1810, or the proclamation of Napoleon III as emperor in 1852.

The estate suffered irreversible destruction during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870: the castle, occupied by the Prussians, was burned after a French bombardment on 13 October. The ruins, which became a romantic symbol, were finally razed in 1892 by the Third Republic. In the 20th century, the park was preserved as a natural and cultural area, hosting institutions such as the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (in the Breteuil Pavilion) or the Sèvres Manufacture. Today, the estate, classified as a remarkable and protected garden since 1923, hosts events such as the Rock in the Seine festival and the Grand Feu de Saint-Cloud, while preserving the traces of its royal and imperial past, such as the Grande Cascade or the foundations of the castle.

Among the outstanding remaining elements are the Grande Cascade, designed by Le Nôtre, and the pavilion of Breteuil, where the standards of the meter and kilogram have been preserved since 1889. The park, organized around a French-style garden and an English-style garden (former Trocadéro garden), also houses historical remains such as the foundations of the Lantern of Demosthenes, destroyed in 1870, or the stables transformed into Jardin du Piqueur, dedicated to ecology. The domain, managed by the National Monuments Centre, remains a place of memory and biodiversity, classified among the national domains by decree in 2022.

The history of the estate is also marked by cultural anecdotes, such as the visit of the giraffe Zarafa, offered to Charles X in 1827, or his appearance in artistic works, from the clip of Nothing Compares 2 U by Sinead O Despite the disappearance of the castle, reconstruction projects, led by associations such as Reconstruct Saint-Cloud!, aim to revive this heritage, while the park continues to be a green lung and a place of celebration for the Francilians.

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