The imposing black gate which opens onto a long alley of plane trees with leaves blackened by a scorching summer bears no sign crossed out with the word ” sold “. For this kind of real estate business, discretion is essential. However, in Val-Saint-Germain, a pretty town in Essonne with 1,400 inhabitants, located forty kilometers south-west of Paris, the news went around the town. At the start of the summer, the Château du Marais, the jewel of the village, changed owners. Owners of the estate for more than a century, the Frotier de Bagneux and Pourtalès families had to decide to sell.
With its hundred rooms, including a large Italian-style living room adorned with twenty-four columns in the Greek Ionic style, this “mansion in the countryside”, considered one of the most beautiful Louis XVI buildings in France, had become too cumbersome to maintain for these families. Visits, film shoots or events were not enough to cover the expenses of the castle and the park, renowned for its 550 meter long water mirror which gives the whole an air of a little Versailles. The estate had been for sale for several years.
Means, the new owner does not lack. According to information from Worldthe buyer is the Czech businessman Daniel Kretinsky (who is also an indirect shareholder of the World) whose fortune is close to 5 billion dollars (5.03 billion euros), according to the classification of Forbes. He won’t live there. His project aims to transform the magnificent property into a luxury hotel and develop equestrian activities in the forty-hectare park. The secret of the amount of the transaction is well kept. In the village, the rumor speaks of around thirty million euros. Asked, a representative of Daniel Kretinsky in France indicated “not being able to comment on this file”.
In recent years, the Château du Marais had lost its luster. Receptions weren’t as lavish as they once were, like the one hosted by Anna Gould in 1903 in honor of King Charles Ier from Portugal. American socialite of the Belle Epoque, wealthy heiress, Anna Gould fell in love with the castle on her first visit on the arm of her husband Boniface de Castellane, dandy and politician. The couple bought the house on the spot in 1899 from the Duchess of Noailles. Anna Gould kept it after her second marriage to Hélie de Talleyrand-Périgord, descendant of Archambaud de Talleyrand-Périgord, younger brother of the famous Talleyrand, diplomat and statesman under the Empire and the Restoration. The castle also hosts, in its outbuildings, a museum in honor of Talleyrand. A second museum is dedicated to Chateaubriand, who frequented the premises at the end of the 18th century.e century.
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