Château de Ferrières

The Ferrieres Castle in Ferrieres -en- Brie, was built in the 19th Century 1855-1859 by Baron James de Rothschild. Rothschild one of the richest Frenchman was in his time and was considered a major financier. Next to the castle Ferrieres he had other castles and palaces, for example, the Château Lafite, a baroque palace in Paris, Boulogne castle and a town house in the Rue Lafitte 19 in Paris, but Ferrieres was with a price of about 18 million francs, the most expensive.

History

The field of " domain Ferrieres " extended at the time of the construction of over 3,000 hectares of forest and pasture land that was purchased by Baron James de Rothschild of Joseph Fouché. Baron James de Rothschild commissioned the English architect Joseph Paxton with the construction of the castle after visiting his cousin Mayer Amschel de Rothschild in the also planned by Paxton and George Henry Stokes Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire. The construction was a big project to celebrate the family's wealth and should be a permanent residence of the family. The castle had a good location in the suburbs of Paris.

How the Rothschild Palais Ranked # 15 in Frankfurt am Main, Mentmore Towers or the Maison de Rothschild in Pregny -Chambésy is the construction of Castle Ferrieres ' an example of the further development of historicism in the 19th century. There are set pieces from different periods such as the Italian Renaissance, the French Louis Quatorze and Louis XVI used and this adds to an eclectic unit. For the large garden of the English landscape park was modeled.

The castle is 65 times 65 meters tall and has towers at the four corners that were once decorated with cupolas Very modern yet was already the central heating of the castle, which was present in the main rooms. These rooms had hot and cold water supply. The kitchen was housed in a building that something was off and was connected by underground railway with the lock.

1870, at the Siege of Paris, it became the headquarters of the Prussian king, of Bismarck and Moltke. Here met on 19 and September 20, 1870 Jules Favre Otto von Bismarck, trying in vain to reach a peace agreement without the humiliating surrender of Paris. During World War II the castle was again occupied by German troops, but this time also looted. It was empty in the wake until 1959. Guy de Rothschild, who spent his childhood here, describes the castle where he grew up and which he made ​​habitable again after 1959 and configured in detail in his memoirs. He and his wife Hélène gave the palace in 1975 the Parisian universities, Rothschild but was disappointed that it was lost in a " sad, dreamless sleep " in his 1983 memoirs. In 2009 it was said that given the abundance of their overgrown by gifts and legacies real estate assets, but also in view of the high maintenance costs and low revenues, was intended by the university administration at the disposal of the listed building castle.