What comes to mind when you are told, “This building was built during the 20th century”? Do you also picture an ugly box-shaped building, made of concrete, iron, and glass? If so, let me surprise you. Somewhere in the Poitou Charente region, there is a palace called Château de la Mercerie, which in its design resembles the Palace of Versailles, and although it appears to have been built during the 17th and 18th centuries, the vast majority of it was built between 1925 and 1975.
This is a special palace, with an amazing story, which will only open to tourists in 2022 and today I am happy to bring you its interesting history and of course all the information you need for your visit there. If you understand French And even if not, you can enjoy it without the language. You are invited to watch the following short video that tells the story of this special palace.
However, if you don't know French, or if you want to learn more about the palace's story, you are welcome to continue reading...
Secrets of Le Marais: A Journey into the Historic and Chic Heart of Paris
Join us on a virtual journey to the most fascinating district in Paris. Together we will discover hidden courtyards, French nobility, and the true stories behind the magnificent facades.
How was a beautiful palace built in the 20th century?
This is the story of two brothers, Raymond and Alphonse, from the Réthoré family. The two brothers were born at the beginning of the 20th century, Raymond in 1901 and Alphonse in 1905.
These two brothers were completely different from each other. The eldest was a charismatic and handsome man, a man of the people, who later in life would become a successful politician. Alphonse, on the other hand, was a sickly man who did not like human company very much and preferred to be alone.
Shortly after their birth, disasters began to befall them one after another. First, their father died in 1905, shortly after Alphonse was born. A decade later, their older brother died in a car accident. Their mother, who had married a wealthy doctor, died in 1924, and their stepfather died about a year later.
However, in life, for every bad thing, there is also a good thing, and in the case of the two brothers, this endless series of deaths had one advantage: they inherited quite a bit of money.
What would you do if you won a very significant sum of money in your early 20s? The two brothers decided to invest the inheritance money in buying a mansion in a village with the interesting name of Magnac (or in its full name Magnac-Lavalette-Villars). It was a neo-Gothic mansion, built in the late 19th century on the ruins of an older mansion that had previously belonged to the Rousseau family.
One builds, one furnishes.
The inheritance the brothers received not only helped them buy a mansion, but in Alphonse's case, it helped him fulfill himself and pursue what he loved to do most: architecture.
When Alphonse was young, his stepfather, who was a doctor, decided that the boy should study medicine. Alphonse hated every second of his studies and as soon as his stepfather died, he immediately withdrew from them. He spent the free time studying classical architecture, with an emphasis on building in the style of ancient Greece and Rome. It should be noted that he never completed formal studies in the field, nor did he have any need to, but the knowledge he acquired on his own was immense.
The brothers spent their first decade on the estate (1925-1935) extensively renovating the 19th-century building, but starting in 1939, Alphonse began building new wings. Construction continued continuously until the 70s, and nothing, including the Nazi occupation, really stopped the brothers from building wing after wing.
And so, while Alfonso worked on planning and building, Ramon, the eldest brother, flew around the world to buy paintings and antique furniture, with which he decorated the new rooms. As the years passed, Alfonso became more and more obsessed with construction, and the new castle spread out, “enveloping” the original mansion.
This is because Alphonse was an impatient man and once he got tired of a particular wing, he would simply move on to designing and building the next wing. As a result, almost every room you visit will always have something missing (for example, a floor without a tile or a column without a title).
During the 220s, the brothers decided to turn their castle into a sort of Versailles palace, and Alphonse built a XNUMX-meter-long facade in the Italian style, but he never bothered to build the rooms, so when you visit the castle, you will see a long, lonely facade with nothing behind it (the facade even earned an appearance in the Guinness Book of Records for its length).
Château de la Mercerie was saved from destruction and resurrected
In 1983, Alphonse died and with him the plans to continue building the castle died. Since the two brothers never married and had no children and since Ramon was not a young man, the issue of inheritance arose. After much thought and consideration, Ramon decided to bequeath the castle to his secretary Solange.
However, fate had other plans and a few weeks after it was announced that she would receive the castle, Sollange died in a car accident. As a result, the person who inherited the castle, upon Ramon's death in 1986, was her brother Bernard Charrenac.
Bernard managed to survive until the long-awaited moment, but then he discovered that the castle was associated with a debt of about 3 million francs plus a hefty inheritance tax. Bernard had no choice but to sell the castle in 1988 to another Bernard, an antiques collector named Bernard Steinitz, who intended to dismantle the castle and transport it in its entirety to the United States, where it would be sold to one of the millionaires. However, the government then France, who had not previously been really interested in this castle, decided to issue an order prohibiting the demolition of the castle, and Mr. Steinitz's plan failed.
Since Bernard could not carry out his plan, he abandoned the castle. And so over the next 20 years the castle stood in disrepair and began to deteriorate from lack of maintenance. In 2008, the castle was mistakenly purchased by the insurance company Volta (they were sure they were buying another castle and only discovered their mistake when they arrived on site). Since the company had nothing to do with the ruined castle, it seemed that the fate of Château de la Mercerie was doomed to a slow death.
But then a miracle happened to the castle. The head of the village of Maniak made the following offer to the company: We will lease the place for 75 years for an annual payment of one euro. In return, we will renovate the castle and operate it so that at the end of the period you will have a beautiful castle and not a wave of crumbling stones.
The contract was signed in 2011 and over the next decade the castle was renovated by about 300 volunteers, some of whom also give tours of the castle. The coronavirus caused a delay in opening the palace to the general public, but to my delight, the palace opened just as I was staying with Rotem and Uri, BBrentomSince the palace is about a half-hour drive away, we decided to take the opportunity and drive there in the second half of the day.
Visit to Chateau de la Mercerie
Before I start telling you about what we saw, let's start and end with all the technical stuff.
- To get to the place, type in Château de la Mercerie in Wies.
- The place is open from April 10 to October 30 (as of 2022) during the afternoon hours (14:30 PM-18:00 PM). However, please note that the place is often closed for private events (the guide says that on weekends wedding ceremonies are held there, while during the week divorces are held :-)). Therefore, before you come to visit, I highly recommend that you, in order to avoid heartache, enter thePalace website And check to see if the place will be closed.
- The ticket price, as of 2022, is 10 euros per person (there are discounts for groups of 20 people or more, but I don't think this will be relevant for you).
And now that you know how and when to get there, here are some of the things we saw during our tour there:
Galeries d'Azulejos
The word azuljos means “small, polished stone” and refers to white ceramics from Portugal that are painted with images, usually in blue ink. It is a long-standing tradition that dates back to the 15th century, and Ramon, who visited Portugal and was very impressed by what he saw, ordered these ceramics from the Allelujah factory in the city of Aveiro.
The result is nothing short of spectacular. 32 wooden panels and within them a series of paintings on ceramics, some of them huge (the largest is 5 meters high and 2.6 meters long). The paintings are copies of important painters from the 18th century, led by Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789), who specialized in paintings of shipwrecks and landscapes with ruins of ancient temples.
Ramon, who loved the painter very much, asked the factory to copy some of Verna's paintings onto the ceramics, and after everything was done, several experts from the factory were sent straight to the castle to install these paintings. The result, as you can see, is spectacular.
If all this is not enough for you, look up at the ceiling and you will discover a long series of paintings, most of them successful copies of works of art from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, all framed within wooden panels.
The vestibule
This dim room contains a beautiful fireplace, which Ramon bought from Italy during the 60s and is made of Carrara marble.
Salon Vernet
This salon is named after a large painting by Verna, bought from a collector living in Franco's Spain. The fact that Spain was confiscated by France because of the fascist regime there did not really bother the two brothers. They sent the painter Adolfo Tagliaferi (1886-1965), who helped them a lot in designing the interior of the castle, and he cut the painting into about thirty pieces, which he managed to smuggle out.
As you can see in the image below, you can easily see the boundaries between each part of the painting.
The Bruges Bedroom
Not much remains of the original bedroom because those who inherited the castle were forced to sell most of the furniture and art objects in order to cover the debts of the deceased.
However, there is one very interesting thing you will find there. If you look, you will see a beautiful wooden door next to the window.
Ask the guide to open it and instead of another room you will discover a surprise: a closet full of erotic paintings!
As you will see, some of the paintings here are just sketches, and this is because the brothers Ramon and Alfons, as already mentioned, did not like to finish their projects. However, there is no doubt that they both knew how to make a living.
Ramon's study room
In this room, Ramon Rethora managed his political career and various businesses.
As I wrote earlier, Ramon Rethora was a politician who was quite successful in his life. He began his career on the left (apparently there is no problem being a socialist and living in a luxurious mansion on the way), but over the years he moved to the right and became one of Charles de Gaulle's best friends, whom he admired. Ramon was elected several times to the National Assembly of France and at the same time also served as the village Magnac.
An interesting detail I learned: none of the brothers learned to drive. Alphonse didn't mind that much, since he almost never left the estate. However, Ramon used to get around France quite a bit by… hitchhiking!
the dining room
This is one of the most beautiful rooms that Alphonse designed. You can find a photo here of what the palace looked like, just before they started renovating it, so you can understand what an incredible job was done here. For some reason, I forgot to take a photo, so you'll have to believe me that a huge amount of work was done here. This is what the dining room looks like today. Appetizing, isn't it?
Alphonse's Library
This library housed a very impressive collection of architecture books, which inspired Alphonse while he was building this palace. In 1985, about a year before his death, Ramon decided to donate the books to the Angoulême library, so the books you see today are not the originals (the Angoulême library agreed to return the books when the renovation of the mansion is complete, so it is very possible that when you visit there you will find the originals).
Ramon and Alphonse's bedrooms
The two bedrooms are located in the old mansion that the brothers bought and were connected by a door. However, in order to maintain privacy, the brothers decided to build an external staircase and carve doors in the stone, so that the door connecting the rooms could be locked.
Ramon's room is large and ornate, and very fitting for his colorful character. Note the impressive four-poster bed in a wooden frame with a quote from Victor Hugo.
By the way, this is also the only place in the palace with a bathroom. Where did Alphonse go when “nature called him”? I was unable to get an answer to this important question.
From Ramon's bedroom you can go to Alphonse's. It's more modest, but when you look at the ceiling above his bed, you'll discover a dome containing copies of paintings from the Renaissance period.
The palace gardens
After you've finished visiting the palace itself, you're welcome to go outside and visit its extensive gardens. There you'll find a rose garden planted by Ramon, and of course dozens of meters of endless facade.
If you don't feel like walking, you can take the train that is parked in front of the palace itself.
Either way, take your time, walk around and enjoy the green landscape all around and the slightly surreal sight of a huge unfinished castle. I'm sure that when you're done walking there, you'll come to the same conclusion I did: there is aDordogne There are quite a few castles, but this is a unique castle and therefore definitely recommended to include in your travel plan.
Looking for what else to do nearby?
Welcome to the page Dordogne (Périgord) and Southwestern France, where you will find a series of articles about places that are, in some cases, within driving distance.
I read the article before everyone else, I had this privilege, I helped a little with the birth, I held the forceps a little, a little bit, at the edge of the edge, and I was immediately captivated by the magic of the special castle and especially the anomalies of these two opposite brothers. There are all the ingredients here that I love, the tricks of fate, dramatic circumstances and two brothers who challenge and live the life they want to live. They didn't get married or start a family, who cares, but they left behind a work of art. They had a passion. It's good that the castle found redemption. It's definitely worth a visit with Zvi's humor and knowledge serving as an appetizer.