Château Perrier, Manor house and historic monument in Épernay, France
Château Perrier is a listed historic monument in Épernay, France, built in the Louis XIII style using colored brick and white stone. The building features a grand entrance hall with mosaics and decorated columns, a large salon with marquetry wood floors, and landscaped gardens at the rear.
Château Perrier was built between 1852 and 1857 for Charles Nicolas Perrier, a wine merchant, by architect Eugène Cordier. During both world wars it served as a military headquarters, and in 1942 the town of Épernay purchased it to turn it into a public museum.
The museum in Château Perrier is the Musée du Vin de Champagne et d'Archéologie Régionale, opened on 29 May 2021 after the planned autumn 2020 launch was delayed by COVID. Its displays were designed from a project commissioned in 1960 from Georges-Henri Rivière, founder of the Musée des Arts et Traditions Populaires. The building's name recalls the Perrier family; it was called Château Gallice from 1878 until the town bought it in 1943.
Château Perrier sits on the Avenue de Champagne in Épernay, within easy walking distance of the town center and train station. Visitors should allow enough time to explore both the building and the gardens at the rear.
The equestrian statue in the courtyard is a cast-iron work called "Le Veneur" by sculptor Pierre Le Nordez, owed to Henri Gallice, the horse- and hunting-loving nephew of Octavie who inherited the house in 1878. The building has four facades in different styles, unified by brick-and-stone polychromy, bossage and a balustrade. Two cylindrical chimneys of spiralling brick and stone rise from the slate roof.
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