Une Favorite - "a woman who costs a lot, but gives great pleasure"
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| This photo and the those below are from Wikimedia, taken in 2011 |
This sad little building in Lorraine, just a stone's throw away from the Château in Lunéville, is the "Petit Château" or "Château de la Favorite", once the residence of Leopold's youngest son, Charles-Alexander. Like the palace itself, it is the work of the renowned 18th-century architect Germain Boffrand. In 1999 the property was sold off by the municipality, and, since that time, "it has not ceased to deteriorate" .
The neglect suffered by this important piece of heritage dramatically illustrates the problems faced by French authorities in their attempt to safeguard historical monuments in private ownership. There is a vociferous rescue campaign, but it has encountered many difficulties, not least mounting costs; the latest estimate for renovation, cites a sum of €15 million.......true to its name, La Favorite is likely to prove expensive to secure!
Heritage at risk
The reconstruction at the main Château, following the catastrophic fire of 2003, has been been accompanied by a considerable renewal of interest in the work of Boffrand. The history of Petit Château has been thoroughly researched by Annie Warin-Lépinois, a local retired school-teacher, who returned to her studies to complete a master's thesis in history of art at the University of Lorraine. In June 2010 Mme Warin-Lépinois wrote an article for Pays lorrain (not available online but summarised in various posts). More recently she has published a thoroughgoing study, La Favorite - une vie de château: légende et réalités, (Gérard Louis 2022. 146p) - something of a campaign piece in its own right. She is also active in conferences etc.
In addition, the Petit Château has featured prominently in a number of heritage events in Lunéville - in 2012 an exhibition on Charles Alexander; and in 2017 an exhibition and conference celebrating the 350th anniversary of the birth of Boffrand. |
Engravings and architectural drawings on display
"Charles Alexandre de Lorraine, prince de l'Europe des Lumières" - 2012 Exhibition.
Château de Lunéville virtual museum.
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Un peu d'histoire.....
The research of Annie Warin-Lépinois, confirms that the Petit Château was built between 1730 and 1734, to plans by Boffrand, under the supervision of Jean Marchal,"entrepreneur du bâtiment de Monseigneur" (on whom Francis III conferred the title of architect in 1734). The gardens were laid out by Yves Deszours in about 1730. The initiative was funded by Charles-Alexander himself (rather than his father, as 19th-century writers sometimes imagined). The house was intended as a sort of pavilion for fêtes where guest probably did not pass the night. In contemporary parlance it was a "maison de bouteilles" - a place for drinking and good living. "Prince Charles" had a reputation for joie de vivre: his more austere brother Francis would send spies to report on his company. Perhaps he would charm his mother's ladies-in-waiting and take them to see the stars, from the observatory which once graced the upper terrace. We imagine summer evenings, filled with laughter, where champagne flowed.
In truth Charles-Alexander had little time to enjoy his château, since he followed Francis into exile in Vienna when the duchy passed to Stanislas in 1736. But, although he no longer lived there, he maintained the property and kept it in his possession until his death in 1780. Stanislas cast covetous glances over the little palace, and used it as temporary lodgings, for his Chancellor La Galaizière, and later for some Jesuits, but he was firmly warned off by Prince Charles who considered La Favorite his personal enclave in Lorraine.
In 1780 the Petit Château was inherited by the Emperor Joseph II who promptly sold it. There was a succession of owners in the 19th century, some better custodians than others; over the years, the building was doubled in size, with a new façade on the west facing the town and the upstairs space reconfigured. After 1947 it was owned by the Chamber of Agriculture, who used it for training and events, until in 1990 it again became the property of the municipality. Various project were planned - for an old people's home, a hostel, a cultural centre, but finally, in 1995, the Mayor Michel Closse put the property up for private sale. (See L'Est-Républicain, 17.03.2022)
What remains
The Petit Château is situated a few hundred metres away from the main palace, close to the eastern extremity of the Parc des Bosquets, near the salle du Réservoir, a public venue for concerts and events. The garden is long gone but there are still grounds of three-quarters of an acre. Beneath all the later accretions and debris, is a little jewel of Baroque architecture. To the east, on the garden side, the original 18th-century facade is unaltered. The small central corps with three bays is flanked by two symmetrical wings, each with five windows. The central portion has three levels, the ground floor, an elevated "étage carré" and an upper floor. The current basement area has no exterior windows.
Two engravings, by the Lorraine artist, Nicolas Belprey (1713-1786), show just how perfectly the garden vista survives.
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Nicolas Belprey, Engravings showing the Petit Château:
1. From the bosquets of Lunéville. 2. From the garden. Dated between 1734 and 1786 (Bibliothèque de Nancy)
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The octagonal central corps encloses a round salon d'honneur decorated elaborately in stucco. Lighted by six great windows, until relatively recently it boasted two majestic chimney-pieces (now sadly missing). It is seven-and-a-half metres high and the mounding alone measures almost a metre-and-a-half.
The exceptional feature is the plaster work. This is organised in two registers. Around the top of the walls run eight allegorical bas-reliefs, with splendid rococo putti, which alternate military triumphs and celebrations of the Arts and Sciences. The spandrels feature twelve medallions, highlighted in gold, depicting Roman Emperors.
According to one expert this plaster work is an "exceptional survival":
"The Favorite testifies the evolution of Boffrand's art which transformed the conventional rectangular salon into a circular salon and gradually left behind the regulated decor of the 1720s to give a greater scope for ornament, finally arriving at the entirely rococo exuberance of the Hôtel de Soubis in 1735".
Sabrina da Conceiçao,
Gypseries (2005), p.138.[Preview on
Google Books]
A painted ceiling was originally intended, but never added: a surviving cartoon, signed by Claude Jacquart, shows Phoebus on his chariot crowned by Renown.
The vestibule features Prince Charles's monogram inlaid in the floor, though this is the work of the artist Albert Pichon and dates only from the 1840s.
The upper floor was altered at the end of the 19th century
The site is strictly out of bounds, but in 2023 an intrepid reporter from L'Est-Républicain, braved the undergrowth to snap some "instagrammable" photos, including some interior shots (L'Est Républicain, 24.08.2023)
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A glimpse inside - photos by Xavier Collins, L'Est Républicain, 2023
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As pictures above make clear, the state of preservation is parlous. More interior shots can be found in the Tribune de l'Art , mostly from 2010, though there is also a picture taken in 1980, which shows the room intact before the fireplaces and mirrors were ripped out. The images on Base Mérimée date from 2000. Further recent photos can be found on Pascale Debert's blog Couleurs XVIIIe, 27.05.2022
The rescue campaign begins
2010 - Rykner in the Art tribune
One of the first voices raised in protest, was that of veteran heritage campaigner Didier Rykner.
In 2010 Rykner ran a series of articles in the
Tribune de l'Art highlighting the neglect of various scheduled monuments, the Petit Château among them. He reported that he had tried in vain to contact the owner and lobbied the Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles (DRAC), which, to his dismay, had formally declined to reply. [
La Tribune de l'Art, 29.07.2010]
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La Favorite in better times - from a painting by Pauline Saucerotte, c.1840. Musée du château, Lunéville - original destroyed in 2003.
(The Saucerotte family owned the property in the mid-19th c.) |
2011 - La Favorite is classified as a Historical Monument.
Although the building had been partly listed ("inscrit") as early as 1984, it was only in September 2011 that it was fully scheduled as a Historical Monument. The rubric on Base Mérimée reiterates its historical and cultural significance: as an essential complement to the main palace, a rare surviving example of an 18th-century Maison de plaisance and as the work by Boffrand. This means that the site is now protected in its entirety. The state is fully empowered to intervene, and, where necessary, to carry out works ("travaux d'office") and pass on the cost to the owners.
2011 - Birth of the Association pour la Défense de la Favorite
At local level 2011 saw the foundation of the pressure group, the Association pour la Défense du Château du Prince Charles-Alexandre de Lorraine, dit la Favorite. The President is Benoît Tallot, member of the municipal council of Lunéville/ Vice-President of the Communauté de Communes du Territoire de Lunéville à Baccarat (C.C.T.L.B.) and delegate to the heritage organisation Fondation du patrimoine. M. Tallot is also president of the Mission Boffrand 2017 - 2023, the group which organised the conference of 2017.
The Association's initial priority was to protect the building's against water damage after an exceptionally heavy rainfall.
2015 - Initial rescue work
The DRAC and the Préfet of the region, were successfully prevailed upon to have the to carry out the necessary work. Supporting scaffolding was erected and the entire roof covered with a protective cladding ("bardage"). The total cost was €150,000, half of which was charged to the owner. Since no funds were forthcoming, work then stalled. Rykner wrote pertinently in 2015 of "échafaudages sans travaux". Since then, ten years have passed and nothing more has happened.
Benoît Tallot notes that a preliminary project for restoration existed as early as 2010, when a series of plans and elevations of the site were drawn up by the architect Pierre Bortolussi.
Ryker returned to the fray in 2015 and yet again in 2020, with more hard words and depressing photos of crumbling masonry: he reminds us that since 2011 the site has been scheduled, yet there is still no sign of further intervention:
"This vandalism is not ideological. There is no question here of iconoclastic destruction. It is purely and simply negligence and absence of any will to act, which can sometimes lead to catastrophic destruction. We are talking here about a monument built by one of the greatest French architects of the 18th century. It is classified, the Ministry of Culture is officially empowered to instigate works"
A delinquent owner
In 2020 progress was dramatically stalled when the owner of the Château, hitherto a shadowy figure, became the subject of a high-profile trial for abuse of social funds, bankruptcy and fraud. He was convicted in November 2021 and the verdict confirmed in January 2022.
André-Paul Miller, a 53-year-old former physics teacher from the Lunéville area, claimed to have invented a revolutionary new method for the storage of electricity and persuaded over 160 investors to part with their cash. He was was found guilty of embezzled upward of €1.7 million, all spent on high-living, fast cars - and, it would seem, an 18th-century château.
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Miller in front of his château; from L'Est-Républicain, March 2022 (though the photo is clearly much older)
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In March 2022, L'Est-Républicain published some photos of Miller posed in front of La Favorite. A caption reports that he had been
"attracted to the property since childhood". The paper observes that he should have begun repairs in 2007; but "will not be available for the building work for several month", having recently been condemned by the Courts. L'Est-Republicain, 16.03.2022
One of members of the ADF has posted images on Facebook from a glossy brochure that Miller produced outlining his (unfunded and wholly imaginary) programme of reconstruction.
Evidently quite a fantasist, this!
What next?
The rescue campaign recommenced in November 2021 following the initial judgment against Miller.
According to the
ADF website, "It is time to restart the fight to avoid the building falling into ruin." At the moment "Nos actions" specifies only that new initiatives are being put into place. In 2022 Benoît Tallot launched a new Facebook group and Thibault Bazin, Deputy for Meurthe-et-Moselle was invited to the ADF's General Meeting.
It is to be presumed that the Château will now be sold. The Mayor of Lunéville, Catherine Paillard, has reiterated that Municipality is not prepared to purchase it directly. The ADF is said to be studying possibilities, but is anxious to ensure that the property passes into some form of public ownership.
On the occasion of the latest ADF General Meeting, in July of this year, it was reported that the cost of full renovation now stands at more than €15 million!
L'Est Républicain, 21.01.2025
It is a lot of money.....
.... In a recent development, on 20th August, M. Tallot formally deposited with the Ministry of Culture a bid on behalf of the Municipality of Lunéville for UNESCO World Heritage status. The dossier embraces not only the palace, but the Petit Château and a number of other buildings in Lunéville designed by Boffrand. Initial signs are that reception has been positive.
It is to be hoped that this new initiative will ensure that La Favorite will at last be cherished!
References
Entries on POP/Base Mérimée:
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