Château de Bercy

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Drawing of the Château de Bercy main façade
Front side of the surviving north pavilion

The Château de Bercy is a château that was located in Bercy, today a part of Charenton-le-Pont in Paris, France.

It was constructed by François Le Vau, the brother of the renowned architect Louis Le Vau, for Charles-Henri I de Malon de Bercy in 1658. Charles-Henri II de Malon de Bercy (1678–1742), superintendent of finances, commissioned sculptors employed on royal buildings to modernize the château's furnishings in 1713-14.

The gardens were designed by famous landscape architect André Le Nôtre, and would reach down all the way to the banks of the Seine river. The gardens were also known as the Parc de Bercy.[1] The whole Bercy area around the château and towards the river were full of gardens and other houses and mansions.[2] As the city grew in population in the 19th century, these gradually gave way to more condensed housing.

It was sold and demolished in 1861. Today the main SNCF train tracks from east to west, as well as the Périphérique and the autoroute de l'Est run where the baroque garden of Le Nôtre used to be.

One of the console tables became a part of the collections of the Louvre Museum.[3]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.economie.gouv.fr/files/files/directions_services/caef/Documents/Expositions_virtuelles/ministere_ville/pages/ber-plan2.html
  2. ↑ http://www.economie.gouv.fr/files/files/directions_services/caef/Documents/Expositions_virtuelles/ministere_ville/pages/ber-plan1.html
  3. ↑ "Console table from the Château de Bercy". Louvre Museum. Retrieved 2014-01-26. 

Further reading

  • Deshairs (Léon), Le Château de Bercy. Architecture et décoration, fin du règne de Louis XIV (Paris, Calavas, s.d. - vers 1910);
  • Pons (Bruno), Grands décors français (1650–1800) reconstitués en Angleterre, aux États-Unis, en Amérique du Sud et en France (Dijon, éditions Faton, 1995, p. 48-53, 185-208);
  • Guy Le Goff, C.A.O.A du dépt. du Maine-et-Loire, "Une visite à Brissac" (L'Estampille-L'Objet d'Art" no. 248/juin 1991, p. 52, ill. - archives pers.).

External links

Media related to Château de Bercy at Wikimedia Commons


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