Château de Chantilly
The Château de Chantilly () is an historic French château located in the town of Chantilly, Oise, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Paris. The site comprises two attached buildings: the Petit Château built around 1560 for Anne de Montmorency and the Grand Château, which was destroyed during the French Revolution and rebuilt in the 1870s. It is owned by the Institut de France, which received it from Henri d'Orléans, Duke of Aumale. A historic monument since 1988, it is open to the public. The château's art gallery, the Musée Condé, houses one of the finest  collections of paintings in France. It specialises in French paintings and book illuminations of the 15th and 16th centuries. History. Original construction. The estate's connection with the Montmorency family began in 1484. The first mansion (no longer in existence, now replaced by the Grand Château) was built, between 1528 and 1531, for Anne de Montmorency by Pierre Chambiges. The Petit Château was also built for him, around 1560, probably by Jean Bullant. In 1632, after the death of Henri II de Montmorency, it passed to his nephew, the Grand Condé, who inherited it through his mother, Charlotte Marguerite de  Montmorency. Molière's play, "Les Précieuses ridicules", received its first performance here in 1659. Madame de Sévigné relates in her memoirs that when King Louis XIV of France visited there in 1671, François Vatel, the maître d'hôtel to the Grand Condé, committed suicide when he feared the fish would be served late. The collection includes important works of the cabinetmaker André-Charles Boulle. Revolution and aftermath. The original mansion was destroyed in the French Revolution. It was repaired in a modest way by Louis Henri II, Prince of Condé, but the entire property was confiscated from the Orléans family, between  1853 and 1872, during which interval it was owned by Coutts, an English bank. Chantilly was entirely rebuilt, between 1875 and 1882, by Henri d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale (1822–1897). The new château met with mixed reviews. Boni de Castellane summed up one line of thought: "What is today styled a marvel is one of the saddest specimens of the architecture of our era — one enters on the second floor and descends to the salons". In 1889, the Chateau was bequeathed to the Institut de France, as a price for the Duc d'Aumale's return from political exile. 21st century restoration. The  World Monuments Fund included the site in the 1998 World Monuments Watch to call attention to water infiltration and high humidity in the "Galerie des Actions de Monsieur le Prince" and again in the 2002 World Monuments Watch due to the precarious condition of the entire estate. Funding for restoration work was provided from various sources, including American Express and the Generali Group. Subsequently, in response to an appeal for the restoration of the château, The Aga Khan donated €40 million, accounting for more than half of a €70 million needed by the Institut de France to complete  the project. In 2008 the World Monuments Fund completed the restoration of the Grande Singerie, a salon with paintings on the walls of monkeys engaged in human activities, once a fashionable salon motif, but with few examples surviving today. Musée Condé. Works in the art gallery (many of them are in the Tribune Room) include Sassetta's "Mystic Marriage of St. Francis", Botticelli's "Autumn", Piero di Cosimo's "Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci", Raphael's "Three Graces" and "Madonna of Loreto", Guercino's "Pietà", Pierre Mignard's "Portrait of Molière" as well as four of Antoine Watteau's paintings and  Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot's "Le concert champêtre". Other paintings in the collection include works by Fra Angelico, Filippino Lippi, Hans Memling, 260 paintings and drawings by François and Jean Clouet, Veronese, Barocci, Annibale Carracci, Domenichino, Salvator Rosa, Nicolas Poussin, Philippe de Champaigne, Van Dyck, Guido Reni, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Joshua Reynolds, Eugène Delacroix, Ingres, Géricault. The library of the Petit Château contains over 1,500 manuscripts and 17,500 printed volumes, that is part of the collection of over 700 incunabula, and some 300 medieval manuscripts, including one page of the "Registrum Gregorii" (c. 983), the "Très Riches Heures du Duc  de Berry", the Ingeborg Psalter and 40 miniatures from Jean Fouquet's "Book of Hours of Etienne Chevalier". Also in the museum's collection is the Chantilly codex (MS 564), the primary manuscript of music. Park and Chantilly racecourse. The main French formal garden, featuring extensive parterres and water features, was laid out principally by André Le Nôtre for the Grand Condé. The park also contains a French landscape garden with a cascade, pavilions, and a rustic ersatz village, the Hameau de Chantilly. The latter inspired the Hameau de la reine of Marie Antoinette in the Gardens of Versailles. The  estate overlooks the Chantilly Racecourse and the "Grandes Écuries" (Great Stables) which contains the Living Museum of the Horse. According to legend, Louis Henri, Duc de Bourbon, Prince of Condé believed that he would be reincarnated as a horse after his death. In 1719, he asked the architect Jean Aubert to build stables suitable to his rank. Modern uses. The Château has various modern uses: