Château de la Muette, Royal château in 16th arrondissement, France

Château de la Muette is the fourth building on this site at the edge of the Bois de Boulogne, erected in the early 1920s by architect Lucien Hesse for Henri de Rothschild in the style of the 18th century. Its pale stone facade with red brick panels, slate roofs and dormer windows faces a raised terrace reached by a wide stone staircase; a columned, arched section stands to one side. It has housed the OECD headquarters since 1948.

The site began as a Renaissance hunting lodge that was transformed for Princess Marguerite de Valois in the 16th century. Several buildings occupied this location over the centuries before the current structure was built in the 1920s.

The name "Muette" is uncertain in origin: it may come from muete, an old spelling for a pack of deerhounds, from the antlers stags shed in autumn, or from the moulting period of hunting hawks. The château's identity is tied to the royal hunting lodge kept by French kings in the Bois de Boulogne.

The château stands on rue André-Pascal, near the Porte de la Muette at the edge of the Bois de Boulogne, in the 16th arrondissement. It is the OECD headquarters and not open to visitors; the building is seen from the street and from the nearby monument on place de Colombie marking the 1783 balloon launch.

The name's origin is debated: it may come from muete, an old spelling for a pack of deerhounds, from mues, the antlers stags shed in autumn, or from mue, the moulting period of hunting hawks. All three point to the medieval royal hunting lodge in the Bois de Boulogne.