The Château de Marly was located in what has become Marly-le-Roi, the commune that existed at the edge of the royal park. The town that originally grew up to service the château is now a dormitory community for Paris.
At the Château of Marly, Louis XIV of France escaped from the formal rigors he was constructing atVersailles. Small rooms meant fewer company, and simplified protocol; courtiers, who fought among themselves for invitations to Marly, were housed in a revolutionary design of twelve pavilions built in matching pairs flanking the central sheets of water, which were fed one from the other by prim formalized cascades.
The château is no more, nor the hydraulic "machine" that pumped water for Versailles. Only the foundation of Jules Hardouin-Mansart's small château, the pavillon du Roi remain at the top of the slope in Marly park.
OMG, Roy, Marly le Roi is where I live!!!!
ReplyDeleteI'm about 5 minutes from the Marly Park, in what we call "Le vieux Marly".
The Park is still a great place to walk around and you can see copies of the statues that used to be there during the kings' era. There are also copies of the famous Marly horses which originals are to be found in the Louvre (and another set of copies is at the bottom of the Champs Elysées):
http://www.insecula.com/oeuvre/O0000039.html
One thing I don't agree is that it says that the town is now a dormitory comunity for Paris. I wouldn't call it that, it's a real town with 17,000 inhabitants, lots of stores, a movie theater, swimming pool, businesses etc. and not just houses or apartments for people working in Paris.
The park area looks great. I used to live in NY & used to jog and bike around Central Park all the time. But your area looks incredible.
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