Château d'Écouen

The Écouen Castle (French Château d' Écouen ) is a castle from the 16th century in the place Écouen in the department of Val -d'Oise. It houses the Musée national de la Renaissance.

Castle

With the construction of lying on a hilltop castle was in 1538 by Anne de Montmorency, Constable of France, begun. For this purpose, a medieval fortification located there - one of more than 130 castles and palaces, which had Anne de Montmorency - demolished.

The original plan from 1538 by an unknown architect envisaged a four-sided building with pavilions at each corner. 1547 Montmorency commissioned Jean Bullant with the completion of the north wing and the construction of a portico in the south wing, which should take two sculptures of Michelangelo, the " dying slave " and the " rebellious slaves ," which he had been given by King Henry II.

In connection with the execution of Henri II de Montmorency in 1632 confiscated King Louis XIII. the lock to it whose half-sister Charlotte, Duchess of Angouleme return.

The west wing was demolished in 1797 and in 1807 replaced by a flatter structure. The castle has since become a training center of the Legion of Honour.

Musée national de la Renaissance

André Malraux decided in the 1960s to accommodate the Renaissance collections at the Hôtel de Cluny in the castle. The Musée national de la Renaissance formed from it was opened in 1977. It houses mainly the jewelry collection, which had the Baroness Rothschild founded in 1922, Ottoman ceramics, enamels from Limoges, the weapons collection Edouard de Beaumont, the terracotta of Masseot Abaquesne, tapestries ( for example, the David - and - Bathsheba - cycle ) and much more.