Lunéville - the palace of Duke Leopold

One would not believe one had changed location when one passes from Versailles to Lunéville 
Voltaire.

Un peu d'histoire......

For 18th-century Lorraine, the dawn of the 18th-century truly marked a new beginning since.  After years of French occupation, the duchies of Lorraine and Bar were restored to independence by the Treaty of Ryswick. On 10th November 1698 the young Duke Leopold and his French bride, Élisabeth-Charlotte d’Orléans, made their solemn entry into Nancy.  Despite limited financial means,  Leopold was determined to assert to his place on the European stage as a independent sovereign.  Fundamental to this, was the establishment of  his Court in a suitably splendid formal setting.  As the American historian Jonathan Spangler notes, "Printed books, pamphlets, and portraits, and even a grand palace and gardens loaded with political symbolism, were still considerably cheaper than a standing army, and were effective weapons of "cultural capital" (Spangler, 2022, p.133).

Lunéville - rebirth of a palace

"Like a phoenix, our château is reborn from its ashes"

Marie-Danièle Closse, president of the association Lunéville château des Lumières

Quoted in Le Figaro, 26.05.2024.

Once the centre of a glittering court, the Château at Lunéville, the former palace of the Dukes of Lorraine, is currently the object of the most ambitious French state renovation project outside Paris. 

The"Versailles lorrain" has not been treated kindly over the years.  For once Revolutionaries are not to  blame.  It was Louis XV who began the depredations in 1751 when the duchy of Lorraine fell to the French crown after the death of the its last duke, the deposed King of Poland, Stanisław (Stanislas) Leszczyński .  In the years which followed the gutted building became barracks to the elite Gendarmes rouges - earning Lunéville prestige as "la cité cavalière"  but scarcely ensuring careful stewardship.  Above all the palace has been the victim of fire - so much so  that it has gained a reputation for uncanny bad luck. There have been no less than thirteen blazes since 1719, and King Stanislas himself died after his dressing gown was accidentally set alight.  According to one fanciful theory, the Court dwarf Bébé   laid a curse on the palace because Stanislas had frustrated his hopes for marriage.

The last, cataclysmic, fire took place in 2003. The damage to the building was heartbreaking  but there was some consolation in the revived interest which the catastrophe inspired, and the extensive restoration work which has subsequently been funded.  In May of this year, Le Figaro reported that  €43 millions has been spent to date on the reconstruction of the palace, with a further  €14 millions projected by 2028.  The ultimate aim is to  to develop a "un parcours muséal" which will recreate the château as it was at the time of the last dukes.