All our kings built, embellished, extended and modified many castles. Big names such as Fontainebleau, Versailles, Marly, Bellevue come to mind. And each king had his favorite castle, his refuge like Louis XIV and Marly. For Louis XV it was the Château de Saint-Hubert . The monarch had it built on the edge of the forest of Rambouillet and for two reasons:as a great hunter, he needed a nearby forest; his request to purchase the Château de Rambouillet belonging to the Duc de Penthièvre was refused.
Construction of the Château de Saint-Hubert
With the help of the Marquise de Pompadour, Ange-Jacques Gabriel First Architect to the King, created from 1755 a simple hunting lodge. Over the years, the king enlarged it, embellished it until it became a real royal residence, a real place of pleasure and hunting, with a facade on the pond, a flat Italian roof, two courtyards with of buildings for apartments and outbuildings, all becoming a real royal domain in a fairly isolated region.
A village was founded there, linked by tree-lined avenues, strongly resembling the layout of the city of Versailles, entirely devoted to the castle. The village of Saint-Hubert still exists today and depends on the town of Essarts-le-Roi, while the castle has disappeared.
In 1758, the castle was habitable and Philippe de Noailles was appointed governor, responsible for organizing royal stays, human and financial management, providing furnishings, providing the material (crockery, linen, etc.) and taking care of the necessary personnel:chaplain, janitor, sweepers, necessary guards.
The King's sojourns
Nothing is really and officially attested and written. Only a few memoirs inform us of stays in May and June 1758, then often the same months each year "in May 1762, there are still nine trips by the king to his castle of Saint-Hubert for this summer, in addition to the two that he has been doing for fifteen days” as mentioned by Jean-François Barbier lawyer in his Historical and anecdotal Journal of the reign of Louis XV. And so it will last until the end of the reign.
Guests are handpicked, based on royal favor, in the manner of Marly and Louis XIV. Although there were only about twenty dwellings in 1758, a list existed with the allocated dwellings and the name of the "blessed". These are men of the same generation as the king, great officers of the court occupying high positions and distinguished hunters, as well as certain members of "the little suppers".
Later with the expansion, some members of the family were also invited, chosen in part by Madame de Pompadour who wanted to get closer to the royal family:Ladies daughters of the King, the Dauphin and Marie-Josephe of Saxony, the future Louis XVI.
The destruction of the Château de Saint-Hubert
As often, on the death of Louis XV, the residence was deserted from 1774. Worse still, Louis XVI, having obtained Rambouillet, had Saint-Hubert removed and ordered "his reduction", that is to say its partial destruction. Sold during the Revolution, the last buildings were destroyed in the middle of the 19th century. And nowadays, only the terrace and the park overlooking the Saint-Hubert pond remain.
To go further
- The royal castle of Saint-Hubert, by J. Maillard. hatchet, 2013.