Vaux-le-Vicomte

Vaux-le-Vicomte, Maincy, Seine-et-Marne
Jean-Pol GRANDMONT, CC BY-SA 3.0

The finance minister Nicolas Fouquet brought together three great talents to build his château: the architect Le Vau, the painter Le Brun and the garden designer Le Nôtre. The result was so splendid that Louis XIV felt challenged. Shortly after the inauguration Fouquet was in prison, and the king took the whole team with him to Versailles.

Nicolas Fouquet was finance minister under the young Louis XIV. He bought the land in 1641 and in 1658–1661 had the château built. Le Vau designed the main building, Le Brun was in charge of the painted and sculpted decoration and Le Nôtre designed the garden. On 17 August 1661 Fouquet gave a huge party for the king with music, fireworks and a play by Molière. Three weeks later he was arrested, accused of embezzlement, and he died in prison in 1680. The king confiscated furniture, statues and trees and engaged the same three artists to build Versailles.

The château stands on a platform surrounded by a moat, a reminder of the medieval castle. In the middle of the building is an oval salon with a dome, which projects towards the garden and leads the eye out along the main axis. On either side lie apartments for the king and the owner. Le Nôtre’s garden extends just over one and a half kilometres along an axis, with terraces, parterres, pools, canals and grottoes. The garden is built on optical effects: a pool reflects the château, and distances are hard to judge, so that the canal only appears when you come close.

The château changed hands several times, and by the 19th century it had fallen into decay. The industrialist Alfred Sommier bought it in 1875 and restored the château and the garden. His descendants still own it and have opened it to the public. Vaux-le-Vicomte became a model not only for Versailles but for châteaux and gardens throughout Europe, including Sweden, where Tessin the Elder and Tessin the Younger drew on French palace architecture and garden design.