Château de Bagatelle
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The Château de Bagatelle is a small château in the Bois de Boulogne in the XVIe arrondissement of Paris. There is also a Château de Bagatelle located near Abbeville in northern France.''
History
The château was initially built as a small hunting lodge built for the Maréchal d'Estrées in 1720. In 1775, the Comte d'Artois, Louis XVI's brother, purchased the property. The Comte soon had the existing house torn down with plans to rebuild. Famously, Marie-Antoinette wagered against the Comte, her brother-in-law, that the new château could not be completed within three months. The Comte engaged the neoclassical architect François-Joseph Belanger to design the building that remains in the park today. The Comte won his bet, completing the house in sixty-three days. It is estimated that the project, which came to include manicured gardens, cost over two million livres.
Bagatelle survived the French Revolution as a public restaurant and was restored to the Artois family during the Bourbon Restoration. It was purchased by Lord Seymour in 1835 who undertook major renovations. During the Second French Empire it was renamed Jardin Napoleon III. In 1905 Bagatelle was purchased by the city of Paris, and has since become a public music and entertainment venue in the Bois de Boulogne.
In the Bagatelle Gardens, created by Jean-Claude Nicolas Forestier, the Commissioner of Gardens for the city of Paris, around the Chateau de Bagatelle is the site of the annual Concours international de roses nouvelles de Bagatelle, an international competition for new roses run by the City of Paris in June of each year.
External links
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