Blérancourt

Blérancourt

Chateau
Blérancourt
Administration
Country France
Region Picardy
Department Aisne
Arrondissement Laon
Canton Coucy-le-Château-Auffrique
Mayor Patrick Laplace
(2008–2014)
Statistics
Elevation 53–159 m (174–522 ft)
(avg. 60 m/200 ft)
Land area1 10.8 km2 (4.2 sq mi)
Population2 1,276  (2008)
 - Density 118 /km2 (310 /sq mi)
INSEE/Postal code 02093/ 02300
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
2 Population without double counting: residents of multiple communes (e.g., students and military personnel) only counted once.

Blérancourt is a commune in the department of Aisne in Picardy in northern France.

Contents

Population

Historical population of Blérancourt
Year 1962 1968 1975 1982 1990 1999 2008
Population 953 988 1115 1177 1319 1264 1276

Sights

The Château de Blérancourt, an influential design by Salomon de Brosse houses the National Museum of French-American Friendship and Cooperation, (Musée franco-américain), founded by Anne Morgan, daughter of the financier J. Pierpont Morgan (due to reopen in 2007). The collections of the Museum include many works on the theme of WW1, among them several painting of Joseph-Félix Bouchor[1].

The corps de logis of the château no longer exists, but de Brosse's twin cubical stone pavilions and a grand entrance gateway approached by a stone bridge across a moat (now dry) survive. The pavilions have identical façades on all sides, framed in rusticated quoins at the corners: each consists of a pair of pedimented windows that make a composition with a central œil de bœuf window under a hemicyclical arch that carries the dentilled cornice across and breaks into the roof balustrading above. Slate roofs with cyma curves converge to a central four-sided cap. The central gateway takes the form of a triumphal arch with a prominent keystone. The Jardins du Nouveau Monde, on its grounds, contain an arboretum and garden plants from the New World.

The house of Louis de Saint-Just now houses a museum devoted to the French Revolution.

See also

References

  1. ^ Franco-American Museum in Blérancourt, France