Château de Rastignac

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The White House viewed from the south

The Château de Rastignac is a neoclassical style country house built between 1812 and 1817 to designs by the architect Mathurin Salat (1755–1822), sometimes called "Blanchard." The château is located in La Bachellerie, near Bordeaux in the Dordogne in France. The house was built of limestone by the Marquis de Rastignac.

Construction of the chateau was delayed by disruptions from the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars. When completed, the house was decorated in the French Empire style.

In 1944, fleeing Nazi Schutzstaffel (SS) forces attempted to destroy the Château de Rastignac in retribution against the French Resistance. Using phosphorus as an accelerant, the fire burned for five days. Only the exterior limestone shell survived. After eight years the structure was stabilized and a roof placed overhead for protection.

The semi-circular Ionic portico of the Château de Rastignac is frequently compared with the South Portico of the White House, and there have been speculations about the possible influences of one house on the other. Though James Hoban, the original White House architect, did not visit the region, the third American president, Thomas Jefferson, did while serving as U.S. minister to France.

Reconstruction of the chateau's interior spaces was completed in 2003 and it is now divided into seven residential apartments (five for the main building, and two for the former coach house).^[1]

[edit] References

Garrett, Wendell. Our Changing White House. Northeastern University Press: 1995. ISBN 1-55553-222-5.
Leish, Kenneth. The White House. Newsweek Book Division: 1972. ISBN 0-88225-020-5.
Penaud, Guy Dictionnaire des châteaux du Périgord. Editions Sud-Ouest: 1996. ISBN 2-87901-221-X.
Seale, William, The White House: The History of an American Idea. White House Historical Association: 1992, 2001. ISBN 0-912308-85-0.
The White House: An Historic Guide. White House Historical Association and the National Geographic Society: 2001. ISBN 0-912308-79-6.
The White House. The First Two Hundred Years, ed. by Frank Freidel/William Pencak, Boston 1994.