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Gadancourt

Gadancourt in the 18th century: a family chateau comes into being

In the century of the Enlightenment, the family of Roger de Gadancourt, who had come from a line of magistrates and “nobles de robe” (individuals who were ennobled on the strength of the offices they held, with their characteristic robes) gave the chateau its modern-day look, turning it into a large, family country residence, taking full advantage of its natural surroundings.

Gadancourt in the 18th century: a family chateau comes into being

In the century of the Enlightenment, the family of Roger de Gadancourt, who had come from a line of magistrates and “nobles de robe” (individuals who were ennobled on the strength of the offices they held, with their characteristic robes) gave the chateau its modern-day look, turning it into a large, family country residence, taking full advantage of its natural surroundings.

François-Jean Roger, the founder

François-Jean Roger, the founderThe Rogers were a family of magistrates, originally from Montoire in the Vendôme area, who joined the “noblesse de robe” by virtue of the offices they held. The Rogers were a family of magistrates, originally from Montoire in the Vendôme area, who joined the “noblesse de robe” by virtue of the offices they held. When he took possession of Gadancourt, the new lord began by demolishing the old central building, which was in a ruinous state. A drawing from 1753 shows the chateau following this operation, with its two pavilions standing apart. Although he chose Gadancourt to be his family’s main property, François-Jean Roger spent little time there, preferring to stay in his Paris residence in the Rue Saint Merry. He died there at a ripe old age in 1780, not without having first specified that he wanted to be left on his bed for two days after his death and to have the soles of his feet cut by razors, so as to be sure that he was dead…
In 1757, he offered the seigneury, the land and the chateau de Gadancourt to his only son, Pierre-Victor, on the occasion of the latter’s marriage to Thérèse-Félicité Devin de Fontenay, the daughter of Jacques-René Devin, counsellor and secretary to the king and lord of Fontenay-aux-Roses. Under the terms of the marriage contract, which was signed by the princes of Condé and Conti, the bride brought her husband a dowry of 200,000 livres, which would not be too much, taking account of the embellishment work which was going to be carried out at Gadancourt.

Pierre-Victor de Gadancourt, the builder

Pierre-Victor de Gadancourt, the builderThe existing château is the work of Pierre-Victor Roger de Gadancourt, who was an ordinary master in the chamber of accounts. The new lord was an elegant, educated man, typical of the century of the Enlightenment. He wanted to turn Gadancourt into a house of recreation, looking out on nature, and it was he who conceived the chateau in its present form. Between 1760 and 1766, he had built a new central building, open on both sides and in harmony with the architectural style of the buildings still standing, to join the two pavilions back together.

The ground floor comprised a library containing all the books then in fashion, an autumn room, a summer room, a vestibule, a dining room, and the apartment of the master of the house, including a “bathroom with bath and boiler” and a billiard table, all of them connected one to the other. On the first floor was a suite of bedrooms, most of them looking out on to the garden, including the one on the north side which belonged to the mistress of Gadancourt.

Many staff worked at the chateau. The most important servants, who each had a room in the commons, were the concierge, the cook, and the linen lady.

A priest also lived in the chateau, where he had charge of the education of Monsieur de Gadancourt’s three sons, Alexandre-François, Athanase-Victor and Pierre-Frédéric. His room was on the second floor of the southern pavilion.

Pierre-Victor Roger de Gadancourt also redesigned the park on three levels. In front of the house, on the east, he had the coppice cut down with a view to creating a French-style parterre garden. At the top of the park, he had planted a rectangle of lime trees in a five-point quincunx pattern which can still be seen today. At the bottom of the park, he put in a vegetable garden with two hornbeam-lined alleys leading to it.

The landscaping of the central part was never completed, so that it remains a large sloping meadow, such as can be found in English-style parks, which today constitutes the main feature of the view of the garden.

To connect the village of Gadancourt to the neighbouring village of Avernes, where he also had land, Pierre-Victor Roger de Gadancourt had two bridle paths laid out alongside the road. Known as the “Allées de Gadancourt”, they are delineated by four rows of lime trees. This rectilinear path, which is still visible, serves as a link between the villages of Gadancourt and Avernes, which have today been merged into a single local authority.

In 1770, after he had become a widower, Pierre-Victor Roger de Gadancourt remarried with Agnès de Monsures, widow of Etienne de Baroille, brother of the lord of Nucourt. The new mistress of Gadancourt had a daughter from her first marriage called Agnès-Angélique, who married Jacques de Monthiers, lieutenant general of the bailiwick of Pontoise, in August 1785. It was in their house that, during the Revolution, the relics of Blessed Marie of the Incarnation, Madame Acarie, founder of the Carmelite convent in Pontoise, were hidden. On 12th September 1782, Pierre-Victor Roger de Gadancourt made a new acquisition, the chateau and seigneury of Villers-en-Arthies, which he set aside for his oldest son, Alexandre-François. When the Revolution came, the aforesaid lord of Villers took no part in the political events of the time. But this did not save him from being denounced anonymously as “the relative of an emigrant” (enemy of the revolution) and accused of conspiring with former justice minister Hue de Miromesnil. but this did not save him from being denounced anonymously as “the relative of an emigrant” (enemy of the revolution) and accused of conspiring with former justice minister Hue de Miromesnil.

Although the arms of the Roger de Gadancourts – a vigilant silver cock perched on a mountain topped by six silver crests on an azure background – on the pediment of the main building were smashed, the Chateau de Gadancourt managed to come through the troubled period of the Revolution relatively unscathed.