OECD headquarters in Paris
The
Chateau de la Muette
(
French pronunciation:
[??to
d?
la
m??t]
) is a
chateau
located on the edge of the
Bois de Boulogne
in
Paris
, France, near the
Porte de la Muette
. It is the
OECD
's headquarters.
Three chateaux have been located on the site since a hunting lodge was transformed into the first chateau for Princess
Marguerite de Valois
, favorite daughter of King
Henry II
, sister of Kings
Francis II
,
Charles IX
and
Henry III
and the first wife of King
Henry IV
, in the 16th century. The first chateau was extended and substantially reconstructed by
Louis XV
.
Louis XVI
and
Marie Antoinette
lived at this second chateau, and the
first manned flight
, in a
hot air balloon
, set off from the chateau in 1783.
The old chateau was demolished in the 1920s to make room for substantial houses, including a new chateau built by
Henri James de Rothschild
, which now serves as the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
's headquarters.
Name
[
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]
The meaning of
muette
is not certain. In modern French, it denotes a
mute
woman. However, the name of the chateau may be derived from several words in the
French language
:
- muete
, a spelling which appears frequently up to the end of the 18th century and signifies a pack of
deerhounds
;
- mues
, the
antler
shed by
stags
in the autumn; or
- mue
, the moulting period of hunting
hawks
.
It is clear that the name was connected with the hunting lodge in the
Bois de Boulogne
, which mediaeval French kings used when they hunted deer in the forest.
History
[
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]
First chateau
[
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]
Near the end of his reign,
Charles IX
had a royal hunting lodge on the site transformed into a small chateau for
Marguerite de Valois
, later the first wife of
Henry IV
. Although their marriage was always rocky and eventually annulled, they became friends late in life and she was able to return to Paris and set up house in the chateau. Marguerite bequeathed her chateau to the
little Dauphin
, later
Louis XIII
, in 1606.
From 1606 to 1792, the property remained part of the royal estates. In 1716, the chateau became the home of the Duchess of Berry,
Marie-Louise Elisabeth d'Orleans
, daughter of
Philippe II, Duke of Orleans
, Regent of France.
Antoine Watteau
decorated the rooms with
chinoiserie
. Tsar
Peter the Great
of
Russia
visited her here. When welcoming the Russian tsar, the Duchess appeared "stout as a tower" (“puissante comme une tour”).
[1]
By early July, Madame de Berry, who was by then kept fully secluded in her castle at La Muette. In January 1716, she had secretly borne a girl at her
Luxembourg Palace
. Unable to recover from a difficult delivery, the Duchess expired on 21 July 1719 in the Chateau de la Muette
[2]
Second chateau
[
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]
On the Duchess of Berry's death in 1719, the chateau passed to the nine-year-old king,
Louis XV
. The king used the chateau to entertain his mistresses, including the three de Nesle sisters,
Madame de Pompadour
and
Madame du Barry
.
Louis XV had the chateau entirely rebuilt by the architects
Jacques Gabriel
and
Ange-Jacques Gabriel
between 1741 and 1745. The new, much larger, building was flanked by two large wings with many smaller outlying buildings. The Duke of Berry, later King
Louis XVI
, took possession of La Muette in 1764, and his future wife,
Marie Antoinette
, lodged there on her arrival in France.
Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette
[
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]
Louis XVI is said to have spent the happiest days of his life at the chateau with his young bride, although they had no knowledge of sexual matters and thus did not have children for seven years. During this period Louis abolished certain royal taxes, and he opened the gates of the
Bois de Boulogne
to the populace. The Emperor
Joseph II
, Marie-Antoinette's brother (travelling incognito under the name of "Count Falkenstein") visited the couple here in April 1777.
Louis granted a small area of sandy ground of the chateau's estate at
les Sablons
(near
les Sablons metro station
) to
Antoine-Augustin Parmentier
(1737?1813) to demonstrate the growing of
potatoes
, which had not previously been considered in Europe, other than in
Ireland
, as safe for human consumption. Indeed, they were considered to be a source of
leprosy
among other things. Parmentier carried out a series of publicity stunts, which led to the acceptance of potatoes in France and then throughout Europe.
The chateau, together with the
Chateau de Madrid
and other properties, were put on sale in February 1788, with a view to demolition. The castle fell into disrepair, and the main building was demolished in 1793.
Montgolfier brothers
[
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]
The first manned flight commenced from the chateau on 21 November 1783, with a
hot air balloon
manufactured by the
Montgolfier brothers
lifting off from the garden of La Muette carrying
Pilatre de Rozier
and the
Marquis d'Arlandes
. Among the crowd who observed this feat were the royal family and
Benjamin Franklin
. They flew for 25 minutes, travelling almost 300 metres above Paris and covering a distance of about nine kilometres, before landing between the
windmills
on the
Butte-aux-Cailles
. Enough fuel remained on board at the end of the flight to have allowed the balloon to fly four to five times as far. However, burning embers from the fire were scorching the balloon fabric and had to be extinguished with sponges, and so the pilots decided to land as soon as they were over open countryside.
Post revolutionary history
[
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]
During the
French Revolution
, the Chateau de la Muette became state property. The property was split up into several lots and sold at auction. The chateau returned to the royal family in 1816. One wing was given to the Minister for Finance,
Louis Emmanuel Corvetto
. The other wing, and most of the grounds, were purchased in 1820 by
Sebastien Erard
, who manufactured
pianos
used by
Frederic Chopin
and
Franz Liszt
. In 1821, Sebastien Erard invented the double escapement action, which permitted a note to be repeated even if the key had not yet risen to its maximum vertical position, a great benefit for rapid playing.
In 1912, the chateau's then owner, the Franqueville family, sold much of the remaining property, and the former estate developed into a fashionable residential area.
Third chateau
[
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]
Two large lots were sold to Baron
Henri James de Rothschild
, who built a new chateau in 1921 and 1922 as his Paris residence to a 19th-century design by
Lucien Hesse
. By the beginning of
World War II
, the old chateau had been completely demolished and replaced by mansions.
The new chateau was appropriated by
Nazi Germany
's
Kriegsmarine
during the Second World War. During the
Liberation of Paris
in August 1944, the chateau was captured after a brief gunfight by the British '
30 Assault Unit
' keen on gathering vital intelligence. In late 1945
United States Army
took over the buildings to organise operations in the aftermath of the war. In 1949, it became the headquarters of the
Organization for European Economic Co-operation
(OEEC) set up under the
Marshall Plan
to help administer funds provided by the United States to promote post-war recovery and to encourage European economic cooperation. The OEEC developed into the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
in 1961, with the new Chateau de la Muette as its headquarters.
The "Rue Andre Pascal" street on which the
cour d'honneur
of the chateau opens is named after one of the
pseudonyms
under which Henri de Rothschild published his literary works.
See also
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References
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]
- ^
E. de Barthelemy (ed.), Gazette de la Regence. Janvier 1715-1719, Paris, 1887, p.180
- ^
Berry had almost died while being delivered of a still-born daughter on 2 April at the Luxembourg Palace. She did not recover from her excruciating delivery but quickly fell pregnant again, as shown by her autopsy. Berry's premature end is vividly described in
The Memoirs of the Duke of Saint-Simon on the reign of Louis XIV and the Regency
, chapter XXIII, pp. 206-220.
- ^
"Arion on the Dolphin (y1980-2)"
.
Princeton University Art Museum
. Princeton University.
External links
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]
48°51′41″N
2°16′10″E
/
48.86139°N 2.26944°E
/
48.86139; 2.26944