Château de la Petite Malmaison


The Château de la Petite Malmaison is a French château from the 19th century in the town of Rueil-Malmaison in the Hauts-de-Seine department.
It was built between 1803 and 1805 for Joséphine de Beauharnais, owner of the neighboring Château de Malmaison.
It was a reception pavilion adjacent to a large greenhouse, since destroyed.

History

The large greenhouse of Malmaison was begun in 1804 for the Empress Josephine by the landscape architect Jean-Marie Morel and completed by the end of 1805 according to plans by Jean-Thomas Thibault and his partner Barthélemy Vignon.
It was the first time in France that glass was used for such a large surface.
The greenhouse of Malmaison can be considered the forerunner of the great glass and metal architecture of the 19th century.
It was about and was divided into two distinct sections:
The park was designed in the English style, also by Louis-Martin Berthault, named as landscape designer to the Empress Josephine.
Due to the expense of maintenance, the greenhouse was demolished in 1827.
The rooms were partly redecorated in 1828 by the new owner, the Swedish banker Jonas-Philip Hagerman.
After the sale of the estate in lots in 1878, in 1887 the Petite Malmaison became the property of Pascal of the Two Sicilies,
Count of Bari, youngest son of Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies, who lived in his Parisian hotel at 8 avenue Matignon, but died in the Petite Malmaison in 1904.

Description

The subdivision of the park separated the Petite Malmaison from the Château de Malmaison. The park, planted with chestnut, cedar, bald cypress, yew and boxwood, is treated as an English park, but the rear has traces of the French style. There is a pond.

Protection status

First listed in the supplementary inventory of historic monuments on 9 February 1968, the Château de la Petite Malmaison been classified as a historical monument since 26 April 1995. Protection also includes the park.

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