TheChâteau de la Muette (French pronunciation:[ʃatodəlamɥɛt]) is achâteau located on the edge of theBois de Boulogne inParis, France, near thePorte de la Muette. It is theOECD's headquarters.
Three châteaux have been located on the site since a hunting lodge was transformed into the first château for PrincessMarguerite of Valois, favorite daughter of KingHenry II, sister of KingsFrancis II,Charles IX andHenry III and the first wife of KingHenry IV, in the 16th century. The first château was extended and substantially reconstructed byLouis XV.Louis XVI andMarie Antoinette lived at this second château, and thefirst manned flight, in ahot air balloon, set off from the château in 1783.
The old château was demolished in the 1920s to make room for substantial houses, including a new château built byHenri James de Rothschild, which now serves as theOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's headquarters.
The meaning ofmuette is not certain. In modern French, it denotes amute woman. However, the name of the château may be derived from several words in theFrench language:
It is clear that the name was connected with the hunting lodge in theBois de Boulogne, which mediaeval French kings used when they hunted deer in the forest.
Near the end of his reign,Charles IX had a royal hunting lodge on the site transformed into a small château forMarguerite de Valois, later the first wife ofHenry IV. Although their marriage was always rocky and eventually annulled, they became friends late in life and she was able to return to Paris and set up house in the château. Marguerite bequeathed her château to thelittle Dauphin, laterLouis XIII, in 1606.
From 1606 to 1792, the property remained part of the royal estates. In 1716, the château became the home of the Duchess of Berry,Marie-Louise Elisabeth d'Orléans, daughter ofPhilippe II, Duke of Orléans, Regent of France.Antoine Watteau decorated the rooms withchinoiserie. TsarPeter the Great ofRussia visited her here. When welcoming the Russian tsar, the Duchess appeared "stout as a tower" (“puissante comme une tour”).[1] By early July, Madame de Berry, who was by then kept fully secluded in her castle at La Muette. In January 1716, she had secretly borne a girl at herLuxembourg Palace. Unable to recover from a difficult delivery, the Duchess expired on 21 July 1719 in the Château de la Muette[2]
On the Duchess of Berry's death in 1719, the château passed to the nine-year-old king,Louis XV. The king used the château to entertain his mistresses, including the three de Nesle sisters,Madame de Pompadour andMadame du Barry.
Louis XV had the château entirely rebuilt by the architectsJacques Gabriel andAnge-Jacques Gabriel between 1741 and 1745. The new, much larger, building was flanked by two large wings with many smaller outlying buildings. The Duke of Berry, later KingLouis XVI, took possession of La Muette in 1764, and his future wife,Marie Antoinette, lodged there on her arrival in France.
Louis XVI is said to have spent the happiest days of his life at the château with his young bride, although they had no knowledge of sexual matters and thus did not have children for seven years. During this period Louis abolished certain royal taxes, and he opened the gates of theBois de Boulogne to the populace. The EmperorJoseph II, Marie-Antoinette's brother (travelling incognito under the name of "Count Falkenstein") visited the couple here in April 1777.
Louis granted a small area of sandy ground of the château's estate atles Sablons (nearles Sablons metro station) toAntoine-Augustin Parmentier (1737–1813) to demonstrate the growing ofpotatoes, which had not previously been considered in Europe, other than inIreland, as safe for human consumption. Indeed, they were considered to be a source ofleprosy among other things. Parmentier carried out a series of publicity stunts, which led to the acceptance of potatoes in France and then throughout Europe.
The château, together with theChâteau de Madrid and other properties, were put on sale in February 1788, with a view to demolition. The castle fell into disrepair, and the main building was demolished in 1793.
The first manned flight commenced from the château on 21 November 1783, with ahot air balloon manufactured by theMontgolfier brothers lifting off from the garden of La Muette carryingPilâtre de Rozier and theMarquis d'Arlandes. Among the crowd who observed this feat were the royal family andBenjamin Franklin. They flew for 25 minutes, travelling almost 300 metres above Paris and covering a distance of about nine kilometres, before landing between thewindmills on theButte-aux-Cailles. Enough fuel remained on board at the end of the flight to have allowed the balloon to fly four to five times as far. However, burning embers from the fire were scorching the balloon fabric and had to be extinguished with sponges, and so the pilots decided to land as soon as they were over open countryside.
During theFrench Revolution, the Château de la Muette became state property. The property was split up into several lots and sold at auction. The château returned to the royal family in 1816. One wing was given to the Minister for Finance,Louis Emmanuel Corvetto. The other wing, and most of the grounds, were purchased in 1820 bySébastien Érard, who manufacturedpianos used byFrédéric Chopin andFranz Liszt. In 1821, Sébastien Érard invented the double escapement action, which permitted a note to be repeated even if the key had not yet risen to its maximum vertical position, a great benefit for rapid playing.
In 1912, the château's then owner, the Franqueville family, sold much of the remaining property, and the former estate developed into a fashionable residential area.
Two large lots were sold to BaronHenri James de Rothschild, who built a new château in 1921 and 1922 as his Paris residence to a 19th-century design byLucien Hesse. By the beginning ofWorld War II, the old château had been completely demolished and replaced by mansions.
The new château was appropriated byNazi Germany'sKriegsmarine during the Second World War. During theLiberation of Paris in August 1944, the château was captured after a brief gunfight by the British '30 Assault Unit' keen on gathering vital intelligence. In late 1945United States Army took over the buildings to organise operations in the aftermath of the war. In 1949, it became the headquarters of theOrganization for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC) set up under theMarshall Plan to help administer funds provided by the United States to promote post-war recovery and to encourage European economic cooperation. The OEEC developed into theOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 1961, with the new Château de la Muette as its headquarters.
The "Rue André Pascal" street on which thecour d'honneur of the château opens is named after one of thepseudonyms under which Henri de Rothschild published his literary works.
48°51′41″N2°16′10″E / 48.86139°N 2.26944°E /48.86139; 2.26944
