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Origin and history

The castle of Malmaison, located in Rueil-Malmaison in the Hauts-de-Seine, is mentioned in the Middle Ages as a fief with a mansion. In the 15th century, he passed into the hands of Parisian bourgeois families, including the Goudet, the Dubois and the Dauvergne, before being acquired in 1390 by Guillaume Goudet, a Parisian merchant. In the 17th century, Christophe Perrot, an adviser to the Paris Parliament, began the construction of a new castle, composed of a body of houses flanked by pavilions. The estate is then passed on to the Barentin, who make architectural changes, such as adding mansard wing.

In 1799, Josephine de Beauharnais, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, bought the castle for 325,000 francs. After the coup d'état of the 18 Brumaire, Napoleon became co-owner and entrusted his renovation to the architects Percier and Fontaine. The castle became a central place of power during the Consulate, before Napoleon favoured Saint-Cloud. Josephine, after her divorce in 1809, made it her main residence and developed an exceptional garden, populated by exotic plants and rare animals, with the help of gardeners like Thomas Blaikie and André Dupont.

Malmaison Park, built in the English style, houses a legendary rose garden of 250 varieties, documented by Pierre-Joseph Redouté. Josephine introduced plant and animal species from all over the world, thanks in particular to the scientific expeditions commissioned by Napoleon. After his death in 1814, the estate was dispersed, then restored in the nineteenth century by patron Daniel Iffla (Osiris), who left it to the state in 1904. Since 1906, the castle has been a national museum dedicated to Napoleonic history, classified as a historical monument.

The castle suffered degradation during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, before being restored by architect Pierre Humbert. The museum's collections include consular art objects, period furniture, and testimonies of Josephine and Napoleon's life. The estate, reduced to 6 hectares, preserves part of its historic park, labeled "remarkable garden". The Château de Bois-Préau, an annex to the museum, houses collections dedicated to Saint Helena and the return of Napoleon's ashes in 1840.

The front of the castle, on the park side, is decorated with statues and vases from Marly's gardens, while marble obelisks, once gilded, mark the entrance. The interior, restored to regain its appearance under the Consulate, includes emblematic pieces such as the Council Chamber, decorated in the shape of a military tent, and the library. Today the museum presents a homogeneous set of furniture and art objects of the First Empire, offering a unique testimony of this period.

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