Chateau de la Celle Saint Cloud

The former owners of the La Celle-Saint-Cloud estate

• 697 to 1616 Royal estate given to Father Vandremar, who donated the estate to the Sainte-Croix- Saint-Vincent monastery (which later became Abbaye de Saint-Germain-des-Prés).
• 1616 to 1625 Squire Joachim Sandras, Sire of Cordan. Claude Sandras, son of Joachim, built the chateau’s main building.
• 1625 to 1648 Jean Sibour, King’s Adviser
• 1648 to 1659 Christophe de Bourdeaux
• 1659 to 1670 Jean Sibour, inherited from his wife.
• 1670 to 1686 Estienne Pavillon, King’s Adviser.
• 1686 to 1706 Gabriel Bachelier, King’s first ordinary wardrobe servant (in his name) with usufruct reserved for François, Duc de la Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac, son of the author of maxims.
• 1706 to 1748 François Gabriel Bachelier, son of Gabriel Bachelier who purchased the estate.
• 1748 to 1750 Marquise de Pompadour, who coined the name “Petit Château de La Celle-Saint-Cloud”. Gardens landscaped by Le Nôtre.
• 1750 to 1772 Jacques Jérémie Roussel; tax farmer, built the pavilion and the chateau’s north wing.
• 1772 to 1776 Duc de La Roche-Guyon, Prince de Garancy, Peer of France, private tutor of Louis XVI.
• 1776 to 1804 Louis Pierre Parat squire and King’s adviser, had the French-style Chalandray flowerbeds turned into an English garden by Morel of Lyon.
• 1804 to 1842 Viscount Charles Gilbert Morel de Vindé, Peer of France.
• 1842 to 1844 Heirs of Morel de Vindé who separated the estate..
• 1844 to 1855 Jean-Pierre Pescatore, Luxembourgish tobacco merchant, built the manège, the orangerie and an orchid greenhouse.
• 1855 to 1907 Élisabeth Dutreux née Pescatore, niece of Jean-Pierre Pescatore.
• 1907 to 1926 Antoine Dutreux, alias Tony, son of Élisabeth Dutreux, who studied engineering at the Groupe des Ecoles Centrales, established the water catchment system.
• 1926 to 1951 Auguste Dutreux, son of Tony, restored the château. Married to Suzanne Noroy.
• 1951 French State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs by donation Dutreux-Noroy on 7 February 1951 to Robert Schuman, Minister, of Luxembourgish origin.

“Le petit château”

Originally, the estate was built on the site of an old farm. The monks added a building with several floors. The structure was sold in 1616. The main building was built to form the middle of the current château.
The house was handed down over the years until, under Louis XIV, the Duc de La Rochefoucauld had it completed.
The Marquise de Pompadour acquired it in 1748, and called it “le petit château”, added new decorative elements and received Louis XV there.
In 1750, Jacques-Jéremie Roussel, farmer-general, replaced Madame de Pompadour. He built the pavilion and the north wing, giving the château its modern-day structure.
In 1804, Viscount Morel de Vindé, Peer of France, became the owner; he kept one of the largest flocks of French Merino sheep, and received Louis XVIII.
In 1844, Jean-Pierre Pescatore acquired the château, which was then bequeathed to his niece Elisabeth Pescatore-Dutreux. Napoléon III was received at the château.
Through inheritance, the château remained in the possession of the Dutreux family for almost a century.
In 1940, Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg found refuge there for a week; the Germans then occupied the estate.
Auguste Dutreux wished for the château and its gardens to be preserved entirely after his death; on 7 February 1951 he bequeathed the site to the Minister of Foreign Affairs with very strict conditions for its use.

The gardens

Jean-Pierre Pescatore, owner of the château from 1844-1855, improved the gardens with the help of the Bulher brothers, renowned landscape architects. He added, among others, the “path of foreign trees”.
Élisabeth Pescatore, his niece, inherited the château and, with the help of her husband Auguste Dutreux, undertook significant modifications to the garden: beautiful ornamental trees transformed it into the majestic, centenary garden it is today.
Since 1985, the gardens of the La Celle-Saint-Cloud château have been listed as a picturesque site in the Yvelines Department.

The Birth of Pegasus Fountain

The Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, jointly with and co-financed by the Ministry of Culture, oversaw the installation of a sculpture by artists Anne and Patrick Poirier, in the ornamental pond at the lodge of the La Celle-Saint-Cloud estate. This fountain, which was sculpted in 1985, is based on the “birth of Pegasus” theme, in which, when Perseus beheaded the gorgon Medusa, Pegasus, the winged horse, was born. The blood of Medusa was transformed into coral. This monumental work, which weighs a total of 8.5 tons, was initially planned for the gardens of the Palais Royal in Paris, and had never before been displayed. The Ministry successfully incorporated the sculpture into the landscaped design of the garden, with the support of the appointed artists, the Architecte des Bâtiments de France and the Conservateur des Monuments Historiques.

The orangerie

The Estate Orangerie is a valued tool for the outreach of world cultures. It has been restored over the past years thanks to funds raised by the French charity Flag-France Renaissance, chaired by Madame Marie-France Marchand-Baylet.

Ongoing projects

In 2015, the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs entrusted the firm Manciulescu, the Head Architect of Historical Monuments (ACMH) appointed by the Ministry of Culture for La Celle-Saint-Cloud, with conducting a detailed analysis of the château and the communal areas, in order to identify the causes of the pathologies detected. Upon completion of this study, which is underway, a multi-year property master plan will be proposed by the ACMH to schedule the works to be done on the site.