Château d'Anet

Château d'Anet
Anet, Eure-et-Loir, Centre-Val de Loire, France
250px
Coordinates
Type	château
Site information
Website	https://www.chateaudanet.com
Site history
Built	1549

File:Château d'Anet (18e siècle).jpg

Anet in the 18th century

The Château d'Anet is a château near Dreux, in the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France, built by Philibert de l'Orme from 1547 to 1552 for Diane de Poitiers, the mistress of Henry II of France. It was built on the former château at the center of the domains of Diane's deceased husband, Louis de Brézé, seigneur d'Anet, Marshal of Normandy and Master of the Hunt.

The château is especially noted for its exterior, notably the Fountain of Diana, a statue of Diane de Poitiers as Diana, goddess of the hunt, and the Nymph of Anet, a relief by Benvenuto Cellini over the portal. Anet was the site of one of the first Italianate parterre gardens centered on the building's facade in France; the garden-designer in charge was Jacques Mollet, who trained his son at Anet, Claude Mollet, destined to become royal gardener to three French kings.

History

Era of Diane de Poitiers and her descendants

The château, which faced south, was built partly upon the foundations and cellar vaults of a feudal castle that had been dismantled by Charles V and was subsequently rebuilt as a Late Gothic manor of brick and stone.

• Collection- A. D. White Architectural Photographs, Cornell University Library (3486777236).jpg

  Bird's-eye view, published by François L’Anglois in the early 17th century

• Le Premier Tome de l'Architecture MET DP109532.jpg

  Design for the entrance portal, published in Philibert de L'Orme's Le Premier Tome de l'Architecture (1567)

• Floorplan of Chateau d'Anet, from Les plus excellents bastiments de France MET DP834468.jpg

  Site plan, engraved by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau for his second volume of Les Plus Excellents Bastiments de France (1579)

• 

  Frontispiece for the corps-de-logis, now at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris

• Château d'Anet - Anet - Eure-et-Loir - France - Mérimée PA00096955 (29).jpg

  Replica of the Fountain of Diana at Anet

• Fountain of Diana of Anet, from the second volume of 'Les plus excellents bastiments de France' by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau (adjusted).jpg

  Fountain of Diana, engraved by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau (1579)

• Château d'Anet - Anet - Eure-et-Loir - France - Mérimée PA00096955 (4).jpg

  Replica of Benvenuto Cellini's relief, the Nymph of Anet, located over the portal

• Château d'Anet - Anet - Eure-et-Loir - France - Mérimée PA00096955 (65).jpg

  Coat of arms

Chapel

The now free-standing chapel of Anet was built in 1549-1552 as an appendage on the east side of the east wing of the cour d'honneur. It was designed on a centralized Greek cross floor plan under a diagonally-coffered dome. The original entrance was on the courtyard façade of the east wing, which was subsequently demolished. It has a porch with widely spaced paired Ionic columns between towers crowned by pyramidal spires. The stained-glass windows were made around 1904 by Charles Lorin from Chartres.

• Photos of the chapel as it exists today
• Chateau Anet - chapelle.jpg

  Chapel entrance façade

• Chateau d'anet 001.jpg

  Side-view of the chapel

• Château d'Anet - Anet - Eure-et-Loir - France - Mérimée PA00096955 (52).jpg

  The chapel's spiral-coffered dome, designed by Philibert de L'Orme

• Chateau Anet - intérieur chapelle.jpg

  Interior of chapel

• Château d'Anet - Anet - Eure-et-Loir - France - Mérimée PA00096955 (51).jpg

  Stained-glass window by Charles Lorin

Mortuary chapel

There is also the mortuary chapel, built according to Diane de Poitiers' last wishes to contain her tomb, commissioned from Claude de Foucques by Diane's daughter, the Duchesse d'Aumale. In 1581, Henri III and his mother Catherine de' Medici came to the chapel to attend the baptism of the infant son of Charles, duc d'Aumale.

• Designs for the mortuary chapel published by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau in 1579
• Floorplan, Facade and Cross Section of one of the Chapels at Chateau d'Anet, from "Les plus excellents bastiments de France" MET DP834457.jpg

  Chapel entrance façade

• Floorplan, Facade and Cross Section of one of the Chapels at Chateau d'Anet, from "Les plus excellents bastiments de France" MET DP834456.jpg

  Floor plan

• Floorplan, Facade and Cross Section of one of the Chapels at Chateau d'Anet, from "Les plus excellents bastiments de France" MET DP834458.jpg

  Transverse section

• Photos of the mortuary chapel ( {{coord|48.858326|1.437370|scale:2000|display=inline}} )
• Château d'Anet - Anet - Eure-et-Loir - France - Mérimée PA00096955 (86).jpg

  Entrance façade

• Château d'Anet - Anet - Eure-et-Loir - France - Mérimée PA00096955 (75).jpg

  Interior view to the north

• Château d'Anet - Anet - Eure-et-Loir - France - Mérimée PA00096955 (83).jpg

  interior view to the south

Subsequent history

The property was owned, or at least occupied, by Louis Joseph, Duke of Vendôme. 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.

Gallery

• Anet 01 (RaBoe).jpg

  Anet today

• Château Anet wiki.jpg

  The portal

• Anet cour du château4.JPG

  The park

See also

• List of châteaux in Eure-et-Loir

External links

• Official Château d' Anet website
• "Le Château d'Anet"
• Patrick Pochon, "Anet"
• Monographie du chateau d'Anet construit par Philibert de l'Orme en MDXLVIII, 1867, at the Kyoto University Library website