Château de Chantilly

Château de Chantilly

A château on the water

North of Paris, surrounded by ornamental lakes and a vast forest, stands the elegant Château de Chantilly. Reflected in the still water, with its towers and steep roofs, it seems to float on the surface like a vision. Beyond its beauty, Chantilly is a treasure-house: it holds one of the finest art collections in France, a famous library, magnificent stables and grand gardens. Few châteaux pack so many wonders into one estate.

The princes of Condé

For centuries Chantilly was the home of the Condé family, princes of the royal blood of France and among the greatest nobles in the kingdom. The most famous was the "Great Condé", a brilliant general of the 1600s, who made Chantilly a centre of elegant life and entertained the king there with spectacular festivities, including dazzling feasts created by his celebrated chef.

The Condé princes filled Chantilly with art, books and beautiful furnishings, and laid out grand gardens designed by André Le Nôtre, the same master who designed the gardens of Versailles.

The Musée Condé

Chantilly's greatest glory is its art collection. The last great owner of the château, the Duke of Aumale, a son of a French king, was a passionate collector. He rebuilt much of the château in the 1800s and filled it with paintings, drawings, jewels and rare books gathered from across Europe.

When he died, he left the entire château and collection to the nation, on one strict condition: that the paintings must always be displayed exactly as he had arranged them, and never lent out or moved. Because of this, the Musée Condé at Chantilly looks much as it did over a century ago, and it holds one of the richest collections of old master paintings in France — second, some say, only to the Louvre.

A book like no other

Among the treasures of Chantilly's library is one of the most famous books in the world: the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, a medieval prayer book filled with exquisite paintings of the seasons and of castles, made around 1410. It is considered one of the greatest masterpieces of medieval art, and because it is so precious and delicate, it is very rarely shown.

Horses and the Great Stables

Chantilly is also a great centre of horses and horse-racing. Beside the château stand the magnificent Great Stables, built in the 1700s on such a grand scale that they look like a palace for horses. Today they house a living museum of the horse, with displays and demonstrations, and the racecourse nearby is one of the most famous in France.

Visiting today

Visitors can tour the château's lavish rooms and the Musée Condé's galleries of paintings, admire the library, explore the grand gardens and lakes, and visit the spectacular Great Stables and horse museum. The estate even gave its name to Chantilly cream and to a kind of fine lace. Elegant, art-filled and surrounded by water and forest, Château de Chantilly is one of the most rewarding châteaux to visit near Paris.