Château d'Anet heritage designation monument historique classé
Subsequent history
In 1576, Diane's daughter Louise de Brézé transferred ownership of the château to her son Charles, Duke of Aumale.  Charles constructed a convent for the Cordeliers in 1587 at the western edge of the Anet parkland. Some years later, Charles was implicated in a conspiracy against Henry IV; he fled into exile in 1595. In his absence, the Parlement of Paris condemned him to death and confiscated all his property. It declared that the Château d'Anet be demolished and the forests of the estate felled. However, Henry IV intervened and saved the château from destruction. In 1610, the Duke was bankrupted by his heavy debts and one of his creditors, Marie of Luxembourg, Duchess of Penthièvre, laid claim to the château. Her ownership was confirmed by the Parlement in 1615. The property's ownership then passed to Marie's daughter Françoise de Lorraine and her husband César de Vendôme, an illegitimate son of Henry IV.The property was owned, or at least occupied, by Louis Joseph, Duke of Vendôme. Louis Joseph was very fond of the château, entertaining his friends there in luxury. Guests included the poets Guillaume Amfrye de Chaulieu and Chapelle. Vendôme undertook major alterations which removed many original features and decoration from the Renaissance. Only the bedchamber of Diane was spared from the redecoration of the apartments. A third story was added to the corps de logis to increase the accommodation and the wing on the left-hand side was rebuilt. The gardens, which had fallen into neglect over the years, were destroyed, and the redesign of the parkland entrusted to André Le Nôtre. The galleries and bath building surrounding the old gardens were demolished; so too were the orangerie, aviary, and heronry. The stables and Hôtel-Dieu were also demolished and rebuilt in new locations, to make way for intersecting canals. The canals fed two windmills, one of which was built on the site of the old Hôtel-Dieu. One of the canals was dedicated to carp and divided into two compartments by a wall of  water lilies.In 1686, the Grand Dauphin visited Anet for 8 days, where he was sumptuously entertained by Louis-Joseph. The festivities cost the Duke of Vendôme more than 100,000 livres, so much money that Louis XIV would only consent to his son returning for another visit on the condition that the expenses be paid by himself.The property later belonged to many of Louis XIV's descendants: Louise-Françoise de Bourbon died here in 1743, she was a daughter of the famous illegitimate son of Louis XIV, the Duc du Maine. His sons the prince des Dombes and comte d'Eu lived here when away from Versailles. It was later owned by the fabulously wealthy duc de Penthièvre, first cousin of the prince and the comte.
The château wasn't pillaged during the French Revolution, but Diane de Poitiers' remains were removed to a pauper's ditch in the parish cemetery and the rich contents of the château, which were the property of King Louis XVI's cousin, Louis Jean Marie de Bourbon, duc de Penthièvre, were sold at auction as biens nationaux. A large part of the château was subsequently demolished, but only after Alexandre Lenoir was able to salvage some architectural elements for his Musée des Monuments Français (presently situated in the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris). The restoration of the château itself, in pitiable condition, was due to comte Adolphe de Caraman, who purchased it in 1840 and undertook a colossal program of restoration. Under financial duress, Caraman sold the château in 1860 to Ferdinand Moreau, who continued the restoration, purchasing furnishings and works of art that were thought to be originally from the château. The set of tapestry hangings woven for the château, in Paris, to cartoons by Jean Cousin, forming a History of Diana in compliment to Diane de Poitiers, is now widely scattered; it set a precedent for suites of Diana-themed tapestries that remained popular into the 18th century. The elements were reinstalled at Anet after World War II.
In 1889, the château is designated by the French government as a protected monument historique (national heritage site).The castle was used as a filming location in the 1965 James Bond film Thunderball and 1976 film The Pink Panther Strikes Again. The entry pavilion for Chateau d'Anet was the inspiration for the façade of Robert Venturi's 1966 Guild House for the Elderly in Philadelphia.
cultural heritage status designation as a heritage site listed status official heritage recognition heritage classification