I like to tell you a bit on the small town; you might recall the name, Sceaux. There is a wonderful castle and park which I am lucky to found me a picture in my cd rom vault to do this post for you and me, I will tell you a lot more than the picture, all worth it me think, The town of Sceaux is located in the Hauts-de-Seine department 92 in the Île-de-France region of my belle France. Therefore, here is my take on this is Sceaux !! Hope you enjoy it as I.
The town of Sceaux is located 13 km from Paris, 14 km from Versailles, 32 km from Saint Germain en Laye, and 471 km from my current home, It has several local roads that criss cross the town such as the D60 located on the city’s eastern border with Bourg-la-Reine. The D 74 then D 75 begins at the tripoint with Bourg-la-Reine and Bagneux, the D 67 starting from Fontenay-aux-Roses and the intersection with the D 74 to the north, Others not crossing the town entirely are the D 920, D 77 and the D 63. Sceaux is connected to the RER network via two RER B at Sceaux and Robinson, terminus of the line.
However, the main thing here and what brought to this town is the Domaine de Sceaux, parc et musée d’ile de France, a museum of the region, and garden design by the great Le Notre. Wonderfully nice and big ! This is wonderful story park and castle and unfortunately only found me one picture in my cd rom vault but worth for the memories of always including in my blog for you and me, The Parc de Sceaux, the entire Domaine de Sceaux, covers an area of 181 hectares: 121 in the town of Sceaux, 60 in the town of Antony, Today, owned by the Hauts-de-Seine department 92, and its park extends over the territories of the towns of Sceaux and Antony. The park was designed by André Le Nôtre at the end of the 17C at the request of Colbert and then his son, the Marquis de Seignelay. The Musée du Domaine départemental de Sceaux, owned by the Hauts-de-Seine department 92, is located in the heart of the Parc de Sceaux and includes several buildings. Its permanent collections evoke the art of living in Île-de-France, from Louis XIV to Napoleon III, and more precisely, from the creation of the Domaine de Sceaux, at the initiative of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to its revival, by the will of the Duke and Duchess of Trévise. The collections are presented in the current Château de Sceaux, (see pic) built between 1856 and 1860 for the Trévise family. Known since its creation in 1937 as the Musée de l’Île-de-France, it was renamed the Musée du Domaine départemental de Sceaux in 2013.
From brochures, tourist office and wikipedia let me tell you a brief tour of the castle, The tour itinerary starts on the ground floor rooms: The Grand Salon Blanc is the first room on the tour itinerary, and the largest room in the Château des Trévises (Sceaux), The Salle Colbert room ,the former billiard room of the Château des Trévises, this is the first room where the collections are discovered. The Salle Oval room is the former music room of the Trévises which houses a collection of Sceaux ceramics. The Salle Maine room , formerly the Trévises’ dining room, it evokes the Duke and Duchess of Maine, owners of Sceaux between 1700 and 1753. Upstairs rooms: The upper floor is accessed via the grand staircase. The upstairs rooms were once reserved for the owners’ private apartments. The first room celebrates the Duke of Penthièvre, who lived in Sceaux following the children of the Duke and Duchess of Maine, who died without descendants. The Salle des deux châteaux or room of the two châteaux is dedicated to the destruction and reconstruction that punctuated the history of the great estates. It allows us to better understand the revolutionary period during which the old Château de Sceaux was destroyed and the genesis of its reconstruction in the 19C. The room dedicated to the Duke and Duchess of Trévise and their descendants, The Duke and Duchess of Trévise took possession of Sceaux in 1829. The Chambre Neuilly or bedroom is a reconstruction. It is housed in the former bedroom of the Duke of Trévise, and brings together several pieces of furniture and decor that once adorned the Château de Neuilly at different times. This room reconstructs the interior of an 18C dining room. There are several pieces of Sceaux earthenware Salle des Princes. The upstairs galleries are dedicated to the museum’s remarkable collection of ceramics. The south gallery is dedicated to earthenware and soft porcelain with painted decorations from the main factories of Île-de-France: Saint-Cloud, Chantilly, Mennecy, Vincennes-Sèvres, Sceaux, and Bourg-la-Reine , The north gallery evokes the art of ceramics in the 19C and the works of independent ceramists from the second half of the 19C. These two galleries are separated by the Salon Guimard room, The pavillon de l’Aurore is part of the tour of the museum of the Departmental Estate of Sceaux. Built around 1672 for Jean-Baptiste Colbert, then owner of the estate, its dome is the work of Charles Le Brun. The Orangerie was designed in 1686 by Jules Hardouin-Mansart to house the boxed plants from André Le Nôtre’s pleasure garden. Upon its completion, this building served as an art gallery. A sculpture gallery of the Musée du Domaine Départemental de Sceaux, the Orangerie hosts shows, concerts, and conferences throughout the year. The Ecuries de Colbert or Colbert stables building was built between 1672 and 1674. It consists of a central body and two U-shaped wings. It served as stables to house the horses and as sheds to house the carriages. It is located near a large watering trough, built at the same time, which was once used for bathing horses. Renovated in 2006, the stables building is dedicated to temporary exhibitions and houses the museum shop in one of its wings.
A brief description of the château de Sceaux, The castle consisted of a central body flanked by two pavilions and, at right angles, two long wings on the ground floor ending in two pavilions. The one on the left, square on the outside but circular on the inside and topped with a dome, contained the chapel, decorated by Charles Le Brun. Colbert’s study was decorated with six marble busts of Roman emperors, empresses and senators on pedestals, and twelve white marble medallions of the Caesars, in oval gilded wooden frames decorated with festoons. In the large central room on the first floor, there was a bust of Homer, as well as a group of wrestlers in white marble. Access to the ante-study was located to the south of the vestibule. It led to a passage with the wardrobe, then to the far south, in the corner, was Colbert’s study, overlooking the garden. On the other side of the vestibule was the dining room, a room that indeed existed as early as the 17C, An antechamber to the dining room then adjoined a corner bedroom, to the north of the central building. A large room, the Orangery, also called the Gallery, faced due south onto the parterre of the same name. Paintings after Raphael and Domenichino stood on the north wall, facing the windows. It provided access to the castle chapel, whose dome was painted by Charles Le Brun. Upstairs, in Colbert’s time, the minister’s bedroom was located just above his study. Its antechamber was decorated with Cordoba leather on a black background. It overlooked the garden to the south and the château’s parterre to the west. Madame Colbert’s bedroom was located nearby, just across the upper gallery, in the southeast corner, overlooking the Orangerie parterre. Her small study was located right in the corner. The entire floor, on the side of the main parterre, was dedicated to reception and state rooms. Beyond Colbert’s apartment, there was a large bedroom covered with Bacchanalian tapestries , The great hall located in the center of the first floor served as a large reception room, celebrating the Monarchy with two paintings of Louis XIII and Louis XIV, as well as large paintings related to the life of Alexander the Great. But the most spectacular piece was undoubtedly the long upper gallery, which was not very wide. It was decorated with paintings of views of the royal houses, as well as copies of Raphael, and paintings of flowers and fruits, as well as landscapes. Above all, 24 busts of emperors and Romanesque figures punctuated the walls. For the gardens, Le Nôtre created a north-south axis parallel to the main facade of the castle: over a km. It began on the village side with a half-moon basin, then followed two paths, a large waterfall and, below, the basin known as the Octagon. From east to west, terraces with cut sides were arranged in tiers. To the east, the vegetable garden was dominated by the pavilion known as the Pavillon de l’Aurore or Dawn pavilion. The park was adorned with numerous statues, including the famous Gallic Hercules by Pierre Puget (now at the Louvre Museum). The Grand Cascade, whose waters flowed from the urns of two river statues by Antoine Coysevox, was admired by contemporaries. The Grand Entrance, the stables, and the Pavilion of Dawn date from this early period, with Charles le Brun decorating the Pavilion’s dome in 1672 in Antony. During the French revolution, through the speculations of the Bande Noir or Black Band (an association of speculators who, under the French revolution, made sequestration of the property of the clergy and emigrants and their sale), the estate was plundered, resold to a farmer, Jean François Hippolyte Lecomte, a merchant from Saint Malo, and the castle and the waterfalls were destroyed. A new castle was built from 1856 by his daughter, Anne-Marie Lecomte-Stuart, married to the Duke of Trévise.
A bit of history on the Château de Sceaux tell us that in the 15C, there was a manor house in Sceaux: in 1470, the lord of Sceaux, Jean II Baillet, master of ordinary requests of the king’s hotel, received King Louis XI and Queen Charlotte of Savoy there with the entire Court. The lordship remained in this family until the end of the 16C. At the beginning of the 17C, the Potier de Gesvres, lords of Sceaux since 1597, had a castle built in the style of Henri IV or Louis XIII. This was a family of bourgeois who would eventually become dukes: dukes of Tresmes and then dukes of Gesvres. Sceaux was raised to a castellany in 1612 and a barony in 1619-1624 for Louis’s younger son, Antoine Potier de Sceaux, clerk of the King’s orders. In 1670, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV’s comptroller general of finances, who wanted to have an estate near Paris and not far from Versailles, to establish his country house, bought the land of Sceaux from the three heirs of René Potier, Marquis de Gesvres, Duke of Tresmes. When Colbert died in September 1683, the Château de Sceaux became the property of his son, the eldest of nine children, the Marquis de Seignelay, a brilliant man who also succeeded in several of his father’s offices: Navy and Secretary of State at the King’s Household. The Marquis de Seignelay died in 1690 and his wife in 1699; Their children will not benefit from the estate, which will be sold by their guardian to the Duke and Duchess of Maine. In 1700, the heirs of the Marquis de Seignelay sold the château to the Duke of Maine, the legitimated and favorite natural son of Louis XIV and Madame de Montespan. The Duchess of Maine, granddaughter of the Grand Condé, held a brilliant court at Sceaux. On the death of the Duchess of Maine in 1753, the château passed to her sons, first to the Prince of Dombes and then, on the latter’s death in 1755, to the Count of Eu. In 1775, upon the death of the Count of Eu, his cousin the Duke of Penthièvre inherited the property, In 1791, he gave the estate to his daughter, the Duchess of Orléans. The Duke of Penthièvre died on March 4, 1793. His property was confiscated as national property in 1793. It was transformed into an agricultural school. Most of the statues were removed by Alexandre Lenoir for his Museum of French Monuments. The estate was purchased in 1798 by Jean François Hippolyte Lecomte, a wealthy merchant from Saint Malo, who had made his fortune in the wine trade and was close to Fouché. Around 1803, he destroyed the château to sell its materials. In 1828, Anne-Marie Lecomte-Stuart, daughter of Mr. Lecomte, married Napoléon Mortier de Trévise, son of Marshal Mortier, Duke of Trévise. The second Duke of Trévise in 1835, he had the Louis XIII-style brick and stone château that can be seen today built on the site of Colbert’s Château. The second Duke of Trévise died in 1869. In 1870, the estate was occupied by Bavarian troops,in the Franco-Prussian war, who sacked the village of Sceaux. The property remained jointly owned for a few years, then Hippolyte Mortier de Trévise, Marquis de Trévise, bought out his brothers and sisters’ shares and continued to maintain the estate until his death in 1892. Upon the death of the Marquis de Trévise, his daughter, Princess Léonie de Faucigny-Lucinge-Cystria, became the owner of the estate. Due to lack of maintenance, the park gave the impression of having been abandoned. On June 25, 1923, the Princess de Cystria agreed to cede the estate to the Seine department. In 1971, the estate became the property of the Hauts-de-Seine departmentno, 92, The château houses the Île-de-France Museum, inaugurated in 1937. The park is open to the public every day from sunrise to sunset.
Some of the other things to see here are the church of Sceaux built in 1214. The current Church Saint-Jean-Baptiste, located at no. 1 rue du Docteur Berger, was built in 1476 to replace the 13c church. The former City/town hall at 68 rue Houdan was built in 1843. The Jardin des Félibres stands not far from the home of the Occitan fabulist Florian. He is buried in the garden since 1839, and his tomb contains a bust. It was erected as a sanctuary for the Félibres, an Occitan cultural and literary association founded by Frédéric Mistral in 1854. The Bal de Sceaux, the first work of Honoré de Balzac’s La Comédie Humaine, has the country ball at Sceaux as its backdrop. The town is also popular with architecture enthusiasts, as a number of Sceaux houses are architect-designed. It is thus possible to see domestic houses designed by Pol Abraham, Paul Nelson, Robert Mallet-Stevens, André Lurçat, Victor Baltard, Bruno Elkouken, Hector Guimard and Louis Arretche.
A bit of history tell us that the existence of the parish of Sceaux is attested for the first time by a document from 1203. Charlotte Baillet, wife of Louis Potier de Gesvres, bought the entire estate in 1597. Until the French revolution and the confiscation of the estate as national property in 1793, the history of the village of Sceaux remained inseparable from that of the estate and its successive owners: after Colbert, his eldest son, the Marquis de Seignelay, then the Duke and Duchess of Maine, and the Duke of Penthièvre, among the most notable. In 1793, Sceaux, then called Sceaux-Penthièvre, took the name Sceaux-l’Unité. Sceaux became the capital of the Seine department in 1800.
The official Domaine de Sceaux: https://domaine-de-sceaux.hauts-de-seine.fr/
The Hauts de Seine dept 92 tourist office on the Domaine de Sceaux : https://www.hauts-de-seine.fr/sortir-et-decouvrir/patrimoine-vert/les-espaces-verts-pres-de-chez-vous/les-parcs-departementaux/le-parc-du-domaine-de-sceaux
The Sceaux tourist office on the château de Sceaux : https://tourisme.sceaux.fr/se-divertir/le-musee-departemental
The town of Sceau on its heritage : https://www.sceaux.fr/ma-ville/une-ville-patrimoine
There you go folks, another quant ,nice beautiful castle park of Sceaux in my former backyard. Oh yes ,the museum is very famous but people tend to overlook the pretty park and garden, and it is a pity. Again, hope you enjoy the post on this is Sceaux !!! as I.
And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 