Le château de Pierrefonds reconstruit: résidence ou musée?

The reconstructed chateau of Pierrefonds:
residence or museum?
abstraCt
Jean-Paul Midant
PhD in history, lecturer, École nationale supérieure d’architecture de Paris-Belleville
Even though this purpose was envisaged, the imperial chateau of Pierrefonds was not rebuilt
to serve as the sovereign’s residence. The architect considered Napoleon III a patron, acquainted
with the history of fortification and arms, who agreed to pay out of his own pocket
for this exceptional creation, rather than a nostalgic and dreamy aristocrat. Pierrefonds, an
austere building with no modern conveniences, was for Viollet-le-Duc what he called in 1857
a “specimen” of French art, whose purpose was to serve as an “object of study”. The architect
was to go even further: with the reconstruction of Pierrefonds, it is French art of the fifteenth
century that should be acknowledged as being on a par with Italian art of the Quattrocento.
The Château de Pierrefonds conceived by Viollet-le-Duc is thus not a Romantic chateau: it is
a history lesson, a lesson in architecture, a monument to national grandeur, and an itinerary
open to visitors to inspire thoughts about the acts of man when he builds, when he fortifies
his shelter, when he constructs his dwelling, when he decorates it. In brief, this chateau was
restored in the nineteenth century to examine the means and the goals of architecture, by
giving rise to –through the questioning of medieval society and its mores– a questioning of the
contemporary era (that of Viollet-le-Duc and, if we so desire, our own).