VISIT CHANTILLY, HAUTS-DE-FRANCE

The Château de Chantilly architecturally gives the impression of an idealized Middle Ages, as one could imagine in the 19th century, that’s why we find many elements based on the principles of the old castle, like corner towers, moats, ditches, a chapel, an interior courtyard and an entrance gallery. This is what has been called neo-Gothic architecture, which is a desire to create again Gothic in the 19th century, a style abandoned in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, but with modern means and modern architectural designs.

Of his castle, the Duke of Aumale has made it the ecrin for an unrivaled collection of 830 paintings, which he himself reunited. The greatest are there, like Poussin and his Massacre of the Innocents, Corot and his landscapes, but also Véronèse, Watteau or Delacroix. The Duke of Aumale has prohibited any modification of the hanging, which has a very special meaning, especially in the room known as the tribune. It is like the centerpiece of the castle, the main painting room where he will exhibit the most important paintings he acquired during his exile. Here he seeks to construct a sort of panorama of the history of painting in some sixty paintings, from paintings from Italian Renaissance with Botticelli, to the contemporaries of his century. And then behind a curtain appears Raphael’s masterpiece Les Trois Grâces, one of the famous paintings for which people come to Chantilly, one of the masterpieces of Chantilly.
Visiting the art galleries of Chantilly Castle is standing in the midle of the second largest collection of ancient paintings in France, after the Louvre ! In the same way, the library, which exhibits treasures sublimated with passion by the Duke, who was the largest bibliophile of his time, like the manuscripts of the princes of Condé and some other treasures, is one of the most important in France.

Chantilly Castle also conceals another architectural masterpiece of the 18th century, a unique place in Europe: the stables which are for some the most beautiful in the world by the size and the magnificence of the building. It must be said that when Louis Henri de Bourbon, prince of Condé, grandson of Louis XIV, undertook the construction of these stables in 1719, he aims to shine in the eyes of his cousin King Louis XV. The importance of these stables demonstrates his power as a prince of blood, his passion for luxury and his taste for beautiful architecture and for deer. To fully appreciate the scale of the building, you will have to enter the nave which housed 240 horses at this time. Under the dome, a monumental fountain of Baroque sculpture allowed the horses to drink. Today, equestrian shows allowing to go back in time take place and the equestrian know-how of Chantilly obtained the label Intangible World Heritage of Unesco in 2011.

As you gain altitude, you can only marvel at the majesty of the Château de Chantilly, set in the heart of a French garden designed by Le Nôtre. You will thus pass above the forest of Chantilly, above the ponds of Commelle and the castle of Commelle, a more secret site that is also called the manor of the White Queen, a pure example of neo-Gothic architecture.