Château de Coeuvres-Valsery - Meeting place of Henri IV and Gabrielle d'Estrées in 1590 - Original and dreamlike Renaissance mannerist castle, built for the Dukes of Estrées in the middle of the 16th century, completed around 1575. Henri IV met Gabrielle d'Estrées there in 1590, the date of the beginning of their romantic and tumultuous affair. 6 hectares. To be completely restored. Villers-Cotterets, Picardy, Aisne, Hauts-de-France. Although it looks like a fortress, it is a pleasure chateau, and more precisely a party castle, given the off-centre plan characterized by an off-centre and small main building, the presence of four imposing pavilions and a possible large gallery disappeared to the south-west. The ambitious Estrées family, which included a French ambassador in Rome, had a festive and worldly reputation, close to the royal family; Coeuvres-Valsery will be erected as a marquisate then as a duchy-peerage for her. Of this ambitious complex built in the second half of the 16th century, close to the royal achievements, there remain only vestiges resulting from the demolitions of the Revolution and the bombardment of 1918 while the restoration initiated at the end of the 19th century had just been completed. finish. The environment, curiously implanted on a swamp confirms a baroque choice, which can find its explanation in the mannerism, current of thought and artistic of the XVIth century having a taste for the strange, the curious, the bizarre, the original; sometimes going to extremes of incongruity and bad taste. Architecture, A square plan, marked by large dry moats spanned by bridges on two sides, confined by slightly projecting square corner pavilions. The architecture is made of beautiful limestone stonework, the walls of the moat are slightly sloped. The most remarkable element is the so-called Henri IV pavilion to the west, square in plan topped with a large four-sided roof, attached to a square stair tower topped with a dome; on the side a low wing. The windows are mullioned and transom, skylights with arched pediment. Beautiful moldings on the facades, windows with bands. Inside this pavilion, a large room adorned with a neo-Renaissance fireplace, black and white floor, ceiling with beams and joists decorated with paintings and crests, low panelling. Two other rooms. A stone spiral staircase. Upstairs, a large room without any decor, two other rooms. A great peak. On the south-east side, a superb cryptoporticus on which the wooden gallery may have stood, it includes a series of vaulted rooms, in particular the large kitchens with their superb stereotomy. Beautiful stone slab floors. A second basement level houses flooded galleries. Remains of the stairway pavilion with two semicircular bays, straight staircase with banister under a semicircular vault. To the North-East, outbuildings, largely rebuilt after the First World War, in the centre, a porch house topped with a four-sided roof, attached to a staircase turret topped with a dome. Inside, a few rare original elements, a stone spiral staircase, a neo-Renaissance fireplace. Nice volume on the first floor of the porch. Character : Gabrielle d'Estrees. Born in Coeuvres-Valsery in 1573, died in Paris in 1599. A woman with a tumultuous life, whose mother was already described as frivolous, the siblings of seven sisters were called 'the seven deadly sins' by Madame de Sévigné, the father saying that Coeuvres-Valsery was 'a hutch for whores'. The family having great social ambitions, it already cumulated important charges and functions, Gabrielle met King Henri IV at Coeuvres-Valsery in 1590, through her lover. The King courted her ardently, returning especially to Coeuvres-Valsery, after six months, she yielded. He wanted to marry her, even going so far as to announce their marriage in public at a party at the Louvre on February 23, 1599; she died shortly after April 10, 1599 while carrying the child she had had with Henry IV, certainly as a result of her pregnancy, although she showed all the signs of poisoning, which for a long time hovered over the doubt about the cause of his death. Henri IV covered the d'Estrées family with titles and offices. Gabrielle's father, Antoine d'Estrées was Governor of Ile de France, her brother François-Annibal, Bishop of Noyon, French Ambassador to Rome, her sister Abbess of Maubuisson. historical origin, - Villiers family - 1552 Purchase by Jean d'Estrées. - 1552-1575 construction work on the current castle. - 1573 Birth of Gabrielle d'Estrées in Coeuvres-Valsery. - 1575 Death of Jean d'Estrées, grandfather of Gabrielle d'Estrées. - 1590 Visit of Henri IV to Coeuvre-Valsery who meets Gabrielle d'Estrées there. - 1739, The degraded castle passes to Le Tellier. - 1793-1795 sale as national property, demolition and fragmentation of the estate - 19th century, purchase by the Berthiers de Sauvigny who carried out major restoration work at the end of the 19th century - 1918 Bombings during the Battle of the Marne. - Around 1920 restoration work in war damage. - 1953 Sale to the town of Madeleine-les-Lille, which set up a summer camp there. - 1974 Conversion into a retirement home. Situation, 87km from Paris, by the A1 or the A3. Price: 594,000 euros agency fees included (including 7.41% agency fees payable by the buyer). Information on the risks to which this property is exposed is available on the Géorisques website: www.georisques.gouv.fr
… 
View the 18 photos
patrice besse