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The Châteaux
Chantilly
The building of the actual Château de Chantilly spans over four centuries
- Anne de Montmorency (1493 - 1567) built the Renaissance section
- The Grand Condé (1621 - 1686) carried out the water fountains, the pavilions, the Main Gates
- Louis Joseph de Condé (1736-1818) built the Jeu de Paume (ancestor of tennis), the Château d’Enghein, and the Hamlet.
- Le Duc d'Aumale (1822-1897) rebuilt the main Château and gathered the collections found in the Condé Museum.
Pierrefonds
This imposing 12th century fortress was transformed into a fortified dwelling in 1393; it then became the propriety of the Orleans family. After numerous assaults by the royal army, it was dismantled in 1617.
Napoleon III entrusted its restoration, completed in 1885, to Viollet-Le-Duc. Since the fortress relives and gives a vision of a medieval city: dungeons, towers, ramparts, double rampart walk. The Pierrefonds Château is an interpretation of the Medieval Age and the Renaissance. Viollet-Le-Duc gave these premises the full extent of his creative talent.
Compiègne
Rebuilt in 1751 and after by Jacques-Ange Gabriel on Louis XV's orders and completed under Louis XVI, the Château de Compiegne is a master piece of classical architecture. Redecorated by Napoleon from 1809, the Château became a very coveted residence by the Imperial couple and their family.
Napoleon III and Eugenie de Montijo made it their autumn residence. They welcomed the most important Princes', diplomats of the time and gave big fêtes, promenades in horse drawn charabanc, and the traditional hunt in the Compiegne forest. Today the Château presents to the visitor forty furnished and sumptuously decorated rooms, which constitutes the Second Empire Museum.
One can also visit the National Car and Tourism Museum created in 1927 by the Touring Club de France’ initiative.
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