Château de Condé

The Château de Condé is a private estate in Condé-en-Brie, Aisne, France, set in a park on the Champagne route 100 km from Paris.

The Château de Condé is a private estate, listed as a historic monument and inhabited year round.

Its 17th and 18th century interiors were created by artists (Watteau, Boucher, Oudry, Servandoni and others) at the behest of the Princes of Savoy and then the Marquis de la Faye.

This château evokes part of France's history, through illustrious characters like the Condés, the Savoies, Jean de La Fontaine, Cardinal Richelieu, Mazarin, not forgetting Olympe and her suspect "powders".

Highlights include the "Watteau" wing and its recently discovered frescoes, Richelieu's bed chamber, the magnificent "trompe-l'œil" effects of Servandoni, the "little private apartments" and the outstanding drawing room decorated by Oudry.

Up to 1624, the date of the marriage of Marie de Bourbon, Countess of Soissons to Thomas, Prince of Carignan (the present Italian royal family), the castle belonged to the House of Condé.

Unfortunately, it was badly damaged, from 1711 to 1719, by troops that were sent by King Louis XIV of France, who had it confiscated during the Franco-Austrian War (the owner of the time being a cousin of an Austrian general).

The confiscated castle was bought in 1719 by a private secretary of King Louis XIV, whose name was Jean-François Leriget, Marquis de la Faye.

Restoration of the façades could then begin, along with the grand staircase or the small apartments whose woodwork and parquet needed to be partly dismantled.