Château de Meudon, Baroque royal château in Meudon, France
The Château de Meudon is a Baroque structure perched on a wooded plateau southwest of Paris, with surviving buildings arranged across multiple levels. The site features preserved architectural elements, terraced grounds, and landscaped gardens overlooking the Seine valley.
The Château-Vieux burned in 1795 and the Château-Neuf in 1871; demolition was considered, but most of the New Castle was kept. From 1878 it housed an astronomical telescope as an observatory, attached to the Paris Observatory in 1927. The estate was classified as a historical monument on 12 April 1972.
The name Meudon comes from the lords who held the fief from the 12th century; Robert de Meudon was grand panetier (bread steward) to Philip the Fair, a title recorded in a 1305 deed. In 1654 Abel Servien, superintendent of finances, took the title Baron of Meudon and commissioned Louis Le Vau to build the orangery that still stands. Queen Christina of Sweden gave Servien a bronze of Mercury and Psyche by Adrien de Vries, which he placed at the end of the parterre above the orangery; the work is now in the Louvre.
The estate lies on the edge of a wooded plateau in Meudon, between Paris and Versailles, and is reached by train from Paris; paths run through the park and terraces. The first terrace of the observatory gives a panorama over Paris and Clamart, and the statue of Jules Janssen stands in its parterre. Parts of the domain belong to the national museum and research bodies, so some buildings are seen from outside.
The observatory was installed in 1878, when the surviving Château-Neuf was kept rather than demolished and fitted with an astronomical telescope; it was attached to the Paris Observatory only in 1927. The site is now the Meudon campus of the Paris Observatory, and the statue of Jules Janssen stands on the first terrace.
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