Rodama: a blog of 18th-century & Revolutionary France: Lunéville

"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.

The 2003 Fire

The conflagration which gripped the palace on the night of 2nd-3rd January 2003 was probably caused by an electrical short-circuit in the chapel. The blaze took hold in the south wing, which contained the military library, the museum of ceramics and the former state rooms. 120 firefighters were mobilised. A wind which blow at more than 100 kilometres per hour fanned the flames and in the days which followed, the structure suffered further extensive damage from the winter frost.

The site was ravaged. The chapel lay in ruins, open to the elements, and the entire first floor and roof of the south wing were destroyed. The municipal museum lost more than 600 paintings, precious objects and ceramics whilst in the library over 8,000 volumes, including the correspondence of Napoleon and a first edition of Buffon's Vie des animaux, were reduced to ashes.

The aftermath of the fire. Photo - Agence Pierre-Yves Caillault

Initial measures

The first reaction was one of shock. The day after the fire the Minister of Culture Jean-Jacques Aillagon arrived on the spot. He was accompanied by Michel Dinet, president of the Conseil Général Meurthe-et-Moselle, which owned the château, together with the mayor of Lunéville, Michel Closse and his elected representatives. The mayor was openly reduced to tears. Aillagon committed himself immediately to a national effort of reconstruction.

Interior of the chapel. Photo - Agence Pierre-Yves Caillault

The first important measure was to secure the site. The area was cordoned off and rubble cleared away. A careful assessment of the damage was then carried out, led by Annette Laumon, the departmental conservationist. Very few of the ceramics could be rescued, though the feet of the celebrated statue of Bébé were found. (This is what the Château website says, but in 2023 the blackened head was also on display.)

Reconstruction could then begin, under the direction of Pierre-Yves Caillault, chief architect for historical monuments. The association Lunéville Château des Lumières, with Otto von Habsburg as its honorary president, launched a Europewide subscription to raise funds.

As early as 5th July 2003 the Château once again opened its door to the public as a community space for street artists, memorial events, artisan festivals, thereby reaffirming its dual function as a heritage site and departmental cultural centre.

The phases of restoration

2007-2015. Initial rebuilding

A description and photographs of the work can be found on the website of the Agence Pierre-Yves Caillault. The reconstruction of the facade and roofs was completed between 2007 and 2015, with work on the chapel, taking place concurrently. The Château was described, with justification, as "the largest patrimonial building site in Europe".

In 2009, the Departmental Council voted unanimously to pursue the cultural and touristic development of the "Château des Lumières". A programme of spectacles and events was put in place, together with the creation of "Jardins des Lumières", an international network for the preservation and study of 18th-century gardens. In 2012 a co-operative initiative was launched with the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers, which hoped to use some of the restored museum space.

As work progressed, limited public access was extended to the newly renovated areas. The chapel was re-opened in 2010 as a cultural venue. (Jacques Charles-Gaffiot, writing in CultureMag.fr. was in a minority to lament the fact it had not been reinstated as a place of worship, but reduced, with its crypt, to "deux banales salles polyvalentes.") The tourist "visite" currently comprises the South staircase, the chapel and its vaulted undercroft, the vestibule, guardroom and livery room, plus a limited amount of museum space on the first floor. By 2014 the cost of renovations were reported to have already reached €28.3 million.

2016 onwards. Second phase

In 2016 work began on the interior of the central body of the palace and on the two blocks to the west of the outer courtyard, the communs, which once held the stables and offices. Neither of these areas had been directly affected by the fire. The refurbished communs now accommodate two galleries, one devoted to the history of the Château (to the north) and the other (to the south) given over to the Conservatoire national des arts and métiers, plus a temporary exhibition space.

2017. Acquisition of the state apartments

Up until this point progress had been limited by the fact that the ducal apartments in the south wing, the former army barracks, remained in the ownership of the the Ministry of Defence. However, on 17th March 2017, after a complex series of negotiations, the remaining state property was officially ceded to the department of Meurthe-et-Moselle (for a symbolic €10) . Although this part of the château was not directly affected by the 2003 fire, there was considerable smoke damage and the area is generally in a poor structural state.

In this video, the newly-acquired apartments can be seen for the first time. Laurent Fricker shows us the enfilade of rooms occupied by Queen Catherine Opalińska, the kitchens in the basement and the private chamber of Stanislas himself, where he was so horribly burned.

To date, this remains pretty much a hard-hat area, though there are occasional public tours on jours de patrimoine.

What would happen next? For a brief moment in 2019 there was talk of selling off the Château to a hotel group, but Jack Lang stepped in and this idea was rapidly shelved. Instead the way was now cleared for the creation of a future "château-musée". The ultimate aim is to restore a substantial part of the palace to its appearance at the time of Duke Leopold and, as at Versailles or Fontainebleau, to reintegrate items from the museum collections in their original location. On 3rd February 2020, the department of Meurthe-et-Moselle officially launched the project, with stages developments to 2030 and beyond. The accompanying report confirmed: The château de Lunéville occupies a unique place in the Grand Est region and offers a tremendous open door to the 18th century. The beauty of its architecture reminds us that it was at the heart of a real flowering of the arts, encouraged by the last dukes of Lorraine. Lunéville château des Lumières - "Projet de développement"

2024 Renovation of the North Staircase

After the delay of COVID and some organisational difficulties, work is now progressing apace. The newly restored North staircase, was opened at the beginning of April 2024 after a year-and-a-half's work. This will be the entry to the new museum space in the ducal apartments. The staircase was not the direct victim of fire, but was a bad state of repair: roof tiles, ceilings and decorative plasterwork all required replacement. An impressive third of the cost - some €760, 000 - was raised by the association Lunéville château des Lumières from public donation.

For the 2024 summer season, visitors can see a projection mapped on the North staircase which recreates its original appearance. This piece of technical wizardry is the work of the firm TSE (Technique Spectacle, Événement).

The Future

The next phase of restoration will focus the central pavilion and its gallery, so as to provide a route for visitors between the two staircases. The work.is scheduled for 2025-29, at an estimated cost of €12.3 million. There is talk of a "chantier de restauration titanesque". After this will the way be clear to move onto the state apartments themselves.

2023-24 Projet "Parade"

This phase is very still much in the preliminary stages of planning. Fourteen rooms have been identified in the ducal apartments, with three among the best preserved singled out as priorities for restoration/recreation. These spaces - the antechamber of the Duchess Élisabeth-Charlotte, the state bed chamber and the audience room - have been chosen to exemplify the formal ceremonial life of the Court. The work is envisaged for 2032-35 at the earliest. In the meantime, a major virtual reality film has been commissioned to give a foretaste of the restored rooms: according to Thierry Franz, the Château's museum director, "This film is the fruit of extensive, precise research on the colours and materials of furniture and objects, and will be a first step, a blueprint for the actual restoration."

The heritage agenda

Historical research

Work on the fabric of the palace has been accompanied by new academic research, beginning in 2003 with the publication of Jacques Charles-Gaffiot's two volume Fastes de Lorrain. An annual publication, Cahiers du Château, was launched in 2005 and there is also a regular "Monday and Friday" lecture series. The Château's museum co-operates closely with the Lunéville archive service and, particularly during its recent close for refurbishment, with the experts of the Musée Lorrain in Nancy. The association Amis du château de Lunéville founded in 1953 is a local society which support research and exhibitions, organises visits and raise funds for museum items.

Since the return of the state apartments, efforts have been concentrated particularly on establishing a secure chronology for the construction of the palace and on investigating the original appearance and function of the various rooms. Thierry Franz, who succeeded Alain Philippot as director of the Musée du Château in 2020, is currently completing a doctoral thesis on the ducal residences of Lorraine under Leopold and Francis III. In a recent interview he admits that the nature of the evidence makes his task challenging: there are few visual references, but a profusion of architectural plans survive, as do Duke Leopold's accounts - hundreds and thousands of invoices and receipts.... Fortunately, Thierry himself remains remains undaunted.

Museum acquisition

Mayor Michel Closse had the foresight to have insured all the works destroyed in the fire. In 2007 the Department and the town of Lunéville consecrated the totality of the insurance payment over a ten-year period to the service of the Musée du Château and its collections.

These funds permitted the acquisition by 2017 of 372 works related to the palace and the Court of Lorraine. With the addition of gifts, legacies and loans, the Château's total collection rose to more than 3,500 objects.

An exhibition to celebrate "ten years of acquisitions" displayed 150 of these items - pictures, ceramics, books, furniture, scientific instruments. Among the highlights were several important paintings, notably Claude Jacquart's depiction the marriage celebrations of the Prince de Lixheim in 1721, which was secured at auction from the Château de Haroué in 2015. Also on display was an evocative portrait by Pierre Gobert of Francis III at the age of three, purchased with the aid of the Amis du Château de Lunéville in 2017:

See: Le château de Lunéville dévoile les oeuvres acquises depuis dix ans (francetvinfo.fr)

Under the guidance of Thierry Franz, the museum continues an active policy of acquiring relevant 18th-century furniture and artworks. Original items are hard to come by, especially since the contents of the palace were long-ago dispersed - when Francis III moved to Vienna in 1732 and again in 1766 at the death of Stanislas. A particular recent coup was purchase of the gilded bronze mirror from the Duchess's antechamber, secured from a Parisian gallery in 2021 after a public subscription.

Last year's auction of items from the collection of Jacques Garcia yielded a handsome table:

Console table designed by Germain Boffrand for the château, c.1720
Bought with the aid of state pre-emption in May 2023. Currently on display in the Livery Room.

The Department also occasionally invites local craftsmen to furnish reproductions of pieces, for example a set of candelabras commissioned from the nearby glassworks of Baccarat.

In October 2023 the Musée du Château boasted 8,500 items, a selection of which are now on permanent display in the Commun nord and in the first-floor rooms off the South staircase.

https://youtu.be/q0tRPDu2NH8?si=PFUvXK0CCnkXQwQv

The current acquisition budget is reported to be €250,000 per annum.

Exhibitions:

Several major exhibitions and conferences on 18th-century themes have taken place at the Château over the last decade. It is not always easy to find details on the internet. (The website's promise of a "virtual museum" is misleading; this refers a series of time-specific online retrospectives, now past).

Here are some highlights from recent years:

2017: Le palais révélé : Lunéville et Germain Boffrand

In 2017 an exhibition in the restored spaces around the chapel marked the 350th anniversary of the birth of the palace's architect Germain Boffrand (1667-1754). The results of latest research on the building were displayed. There was also a first foray into virtual reconstruction, featuring the private chamber of Duke Francis III, the "chambre verte". A giant pinhole camera ("un sténopé") was set up outside on the terrace.

Photo from L'Est Républicain, 09.09.2017

2018: D'or et de gloire: Lunéville et ses ducs au xviiie siècle -

This exhibition, held in the Livery Room, was organised in partnership with the Musée lorrain in Nancy, which had recently closed for five years of building work. The focus was on the development of the arts under Leopold and Stanislas. Thirty items from the Musée lorrain were chosen by Alain Philippot for their relevance to the history of the Château. Among the highlights was a 1703 formal portrait of Duke Leopold by the Lorrain painter Nicolas Dupuy and a depiction of King Stanislas's famous mechanical garden feature "Le Rocher" by André Joly, c. 1766. Also on display was the ceremonial sword of the Grand Écuyer of Lorraine, acquired by the Musée Lorrain from the 2015 Haroué sale.

See: Exposition - Hors les murs - Musée Lorrain - Ville de Nancy

2018: Les Belles heures du Château de Lunéville.

In addition, the Château's own collections were highlighted in three concurrent presentations, which focused on the importance of the natural world in the architecture and court culture of Lunéville and on the wider aesthetic, cultural and scientific heritage of the Enlightenment. Among new pieces on display was a Flemish tapestry, "Les marchands de légumes", from the workshop of Guillaume Werniers. This again came from the château d’Haroué, where it once adorned the state bedroom of Leopold's mistress, the Princesse de Craon. Scientific instruments similar to those which once occupied the salle des Machines of Leopold also featured.

Press release (pdf)

Review from the Journal des arts: À Lunéville, le château retrouve ses belles heures (lejournaldesarts.fr)

Many pieces from this exhibition are now on permanent display either in the rooms at the top of the South staircase or in the museum space in the North commun.

2021: La sculpture et son château. Variations sur un art majeur

The Château's 2021 cultural season, organised in partnership with the Louvre, was dedicated to 18th-century sculpture in Lorraine. The exhibition "la sculpture en son château" was curated by Thierry Franz. La sculpture lorraine au XVIIIe siècle (lejournaldesarts.fr)

2023: Paraitre, Beautés en représentation (18ème au 21ème siècles).

This exhibition was themed around the importance of "appearance" at the 18th-century Court and beyond.

Here are some photographs on the blog of Pierre Dubois (post of 02.08.2023):

Château de Lunéville. Expo Paraitre | Histoires d'universités (wordpress.com)

2024: "Parade" - Métiers d'art en majesté chez les ducs et duchesses de Lorraine

This summer a new exhibition in the Livery Room will focus on the planned restoration of the state apartments. It will include a preliminary version of the new digital reconstructions.