Château de Baronville
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article is orphaned as few or no other articles link to it. Please help introduce links in articles on related topics. (January 2008) |
The Château de Baronville is located between Paris and Chartres in France near the town of Béville-Le-Comte, Eure-et-Loir.
It rises in the center of a vast park anchored with several lakes . The château was built for grand receptions during the Second Empire and hosted many prestigious guests. The harmonious architecture of the building is the result of a union between spaciousness and refinement in the classical style.
The palace can not be visited but can be rented exclusively. At Baronville, you may celebrate your wedding, hold a seminar or a business meeting, launch a product, or use for a photo shoot or film setting.
[edit] History
Nowadays' Baronville is the third château built on the same place.
The name Baronville dates back to the Roman Empire. It was at this time that the place was called Baronis Villa, meaning ‘house of the baron’, itself a title held by ‘hommes forts’, who were charged with the protection of the empire’s borders. In the Middle Ages, the château was a fortified manor house, of which there still remains a significant part of the drainage system, the foundations and cellars. Local legend has it that the Pucelle d’Orleans, or Saint Joan of Arc, saved Baronville and the surrounding countryside from English occupation during the Hundred Years War.
Between 1620 and 1623, a Louis XIII château was built on the same site by Claude de Montescot and his son, Jacques.
In 1783, the d’Aligre family bought Baronville. Originally from Chartres, this family had already given two great chancellors of France and Gardes des Sceaux: Etienne Ist, marquis d’Aligre, Chancellor of France from 1624 to 1635, and Etienne II, marquis d’Aligre, Chancellor from 1674 to 1677. Etienne Francois, marquis d’Aligre and count de Marans spent a considerable part of his fortune in restoring the château and its former gardens.
The property of the d’Aligre family, as well as their name and titles, were transferred by marriage to the noble house of the marquess of Pomereu by royal command on 21 December 1825. Armand, marquis de Pomereu d’Aligre, destroyed the second château in 1867 and commissioned the architect Léon de Sanges to design the present château, which was finished in 1868. The same talented workers worked on the roofs of Baronville, of the Mont-St-Michel (France) and on the Statue of Liberty in New York (USA).
During the World War I, the owners set up a military hospital on the estate. During World War II, Field-Marshal Friedrich Paulus made his headquarters in Baronville, and several other german units (including the Luftwaffe) occupied the Château. After decades of restorations of the park and the palace, it could be rented for exclusive events since 1980.
Among other famous guests, Baronville hosted Ronaldo, the famous Brazilian professional footballer, Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, King of Saudi Arabia, Sir Elton John, Mr. Pierre Salinger, White House Press Secretary to US President John F. Kennedy, Michel Galabru, French actor, Emperor Bao Dai, 13th and last emperor of Vietnam, as well as a considerable number of French ministers, international diplomats and many others.
