Domain of Chantilly, Estate in Chantilly, France
The domain of Chantilly covers 7,830 hectares across 15 communes of the Oise and Val-d'Oise. Its centerpiece is the château, rebuilt from 1875 to 1882 by architect Honoré Daumet for the duc d'Aumale, set before formal gardens laid out by André Le Nôtre and bordered by the 6,344-hectare forest of Chantilly.
From 1386 to 1897 the estate passed by inheritance, never by sale, through branches of one family: the Orgemonts, then the Montmorencys, for whom Anne de Montmorency had Jean Bullant build the small château, then the Bourbon-Condé, whose Grand Condé commissioned the park from André Le Nôtre. Sequestered on 13 June 1792 and sold in lots, it was rebuilt from 1875 to 1882 by Honoré Daumet for Henri d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale, who in 1886 left it to the Institut de France, not the state.
The Condé Museum houses masterpieces by Raphael, Delacroix, and Botticelli that shaped French artistic taste for centuries. Today, these works draw visitors who come to experience the refined collecting passion of the nobility who lived here.
The estate lies roughly 40 kilometers north of Paris and can be reached via the A1 motorway or frequent trains from Gare du Nord station. Because the property is very large, visitors should allow plenty of time and decide in advance which areas interest them most.
The Grandes Écuries were built from 1719 by Jean Aubert for Louis Henri de Bourbon, prince de Condé, who believed he would be reincarnated as a horse. They now house the Musée vivant du cheval, a living horse museum, and are managed with the château and park by the Fondation pour la sauvegarde et le développement du domaine de Chantilly, created in 2005 on the initiative of Karim Aga Khan IV.
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