a second post on Jacques Lemercier, premier architecte du roy

JACQUES LEMERCIER (Pontoise c.1585 – Paris January 13, 1654) was a French architect and engineer, one of the influential trio that included Louis Le Vau and François Mansart who formed the classicizing French Baroque manner, drawing from French traditions of the previous century and current Roman practice the fresh, essentially French synthesis associated with Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIII.
Jacques Lemercier was the son of a master mason, one of a large interrelated tribe of professionals. Profiting by a voyage to Italy with a long stay in Rome, presumably from ca. 1607 to 1610, Lemercier developed the simplified classicizing manner established by Salomon de Brosse, who died in 1636, and whose Palais du Luxembourg for Marie de Medici Lemercier would see to completion.
On his return to France, after several years working as an enginerr building bridges, his first major commission, however, was to complete the Parisian Church of the Oratorians, (1616), which had been begun by Charles Métezeau; its success made his reputation. As early as 1618 he appears as architecte du roy, with a salary of 1200 livres, out of which he had to reimburse his atelier. In 1625 Richelieu put him in charge of the main royal project, the galleries being added to the Louvre, where Lemercier was working to the design established by Pierre Lescot a generation before; for the sake of regularity, Lescot's ranges in the Cour Carré were multiplied round further courtyards, quadrupling the building area, each of the four sides having a pavilion at its center. In this manner Lemercier built the northern half of the west side and the famous Pavillon de l'Horloge at the center of the west wing. Its high squared dome breaks the wing's roofline and three arched openings provide access to the enclosed court. Two superposed orders of columns and rich sculptural decor in pediments and niches, on piers and panels are kept under control by strong horizontal cornice lines.
In 1638–39 Lemercier was appointed premier architecte charged with supervision of all the royal building enterprises, in which capacity he fell into a disagreeable dispute with the cultivated Nicolas Poussin about the decorations in the Louvre.
The Hôtel de Liancourt (1623) stands out among Lemericier's Paris hôtel particuliers for aristocratic patrons.
For Richelieu Lemercier built the Paris residence (from 1627 on), the "Palais-Cardinal" which still forms the nucleus of the Palais Royal, where Lemercier's work can be seen in the cour d'honneur facing the Place. A more expansive town-planning project, one of the most ambitious non-military French projects of the century, was the palatial residence, the grand parish church and the entire new town of Richelieu, in Poitou (Indre-et-Loire). The lost château itself was an improvisation on the theme set by Brosse's Luxembourg. Also for the Cardinal Lemercier rebuilt the Château de Rueil, not so far from Paris, also demolished. The Château of Thouars, with its majestic long façade, is his also, and survives.
Less known, because gardens are less permanent, are parterre gardens laid out to Lemercier's desgns, at Montjeu, at Richelieu and at Rueil.
At the Sorbonne, the college has been rebuilt, but its domed church (1635) is the acknowledged surviving masterpiece of Lemercier. The hemispherical dome on a tall octagonal drum, first of its type in France, has four small cupolas in the angles of the Greek cross above the two Corinthian orders on the façade full columns below, flat pilasters above. The interior was intended to be frescoed. The square intersection is surrounded by cylindrical vaults and a semicircular choir apse. The north side consists of a portico. In the church Richelieu was laid to rest in 1642.
At the royal abbey church of Val-de-Grâce Lemercier succeeded the elder Mansart who completed the structure to the cornice line. Lemercier completed it with a dome.
Lemercier was engaged by Louis XIII in initial planning for an expansion of the hunting lodge at Versailles, a project which was only realized by other architects, notably Louis Le Vau and Jules Hardouin-Mansart, under the guidance of Louis XIV.
One of his last commissions was the design of the Church of Saint-Roch, where the cornerstone was laid by Louis XIV in 1653. With a length of m. it is one of the largest churches of Paris. the deep choir emphasizes the extent of the interior, scarcely interrupted by the discreet low dome over the crossing, which is hidden on the exterior beneath the transept roof. Lemercier completed the choir and crossing and the rest of the interior was carried out to his plan. Work was interrupted 1701–1740 save for a chapel inserted 1705–1710 designed by Jules Hardouin-Mansart. The present façade is an 18th-century composition by Robert de Cotte.
In a long career, the scrupulous Lemercier amassed no fortune. Though in 1645 Lemercier was receiving, as first of the royal architects, a salary of 3000 livres, after his death— in the house he had built for himself, still standing at n° 46 rue de l’Arbre Sec— it was necessary to sell the large library he had collected, in order to settle his debts.

Elections to parliament in Paris - Round One, Sunday 10 June 2007

http://www.interieur.gouv.fr/sections/a_votre_service/resultats-elections/LG2007/037/circons04.html

If you paste this address into an internet browser you can see the results of last Sunday's Election for the Indre-et-Loire (37) 4th Circonscription, the parliamentary seat held for the last five years by M Hervé Novelli (UMP) who comes from Richelieu and has a business in the town's Business Park. His re-election would probably continue to help the CITÉ IDÉALE.

The results for Touraine's five circonscriptions:

1ère circonscription
Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres (UMP)....38,13%...contre 31,86% pour Jean-Patrick Gille (PS)

2ème circonscription
Claude Greff (UMP)....46,19% ...contre 26,50% pour Mélanie Fortier (PRG-PS)

3ème circonscription
Jean-Jacques Descamps (UMP)....42,49%...contre 30,06% pour Marisol Touraine (PS)

4ème circonscription
Hervé Novelli (UMP)....44,24%...contre 30,79% pour Philippe Le Breton (PS)

5ème circonscription
Philippe Briand (UMP)....48,01%...contre 29,99% pour Claude Roiron (PS)

Richelieu's knockers - 1

The curious similarity of Richelieu to the New Town of Edinburgh

In 1766 William Craig was asked by the municipality of Edinburgh to prepare a plan for what was to become known at 'The New Town'. This large expansion of the Scottish capital city on a new open site across the north Loch was completed and expanded repeatedly. It is the largest Georgian comprehensive development in Great Britain.
There seem to be many detailed similarities with the VILLE IDÉALE of Richelieu, laid out 130 years earlier.
Each street element of the design has its equivalent:

George Street = Grande Rue
St Andrew's Square = place du Marché (originally place du Cardinal)
Charlotte Square = place des Religieuses (originally place Royale)
Princes Street = rue Henri Proust
Queen Street = rue des Galères
Frederick Street = rue Traversière

Was the dead Cardinal's little Ideal Town the template for the 'The Athens of the North' as it entered its famous age of Enlightenment - Adam Smith, David Hume et al? Did it take the hundred years for the engravings of the town of Richelieu to be aside the drawing-board of a 22 year-old Scottish architect? Richelieu was comprehensively published in a famous architectural compendium 'Le Petit Marot' published in Paris in about 1650. Was there a reference here, past the new Hanoverians, back to the Franco-Scottish Grand Alliance of the Catholic-leaning Stuart Kings, who had been for so long 'guests' of Louis XIV, even owning Aubigny sur Nère castle in Berry.

Further work to the place du Marché

At the centre of the reorganised town market square, at the conjuction of the axes of the Grande Rue and the route de Loudun, there will be a GRAND FOUNTAIN set flush into the pavings. The twenty illuminated water-jets will be programmable by computer into both simple and elaborate patterns, and with varying durations of display. When not in use, the ground-level jets will allow other functions and events to be carried out across the entire square.
The paving is nearing completion with many metres of neatly-cut square setts from a quarry in Comblanchien, in Burgundy.
The carriageway tarmac will, we understand, have a further metallic coating to lighten the colour of the black bitumen, so that the contrast with the areas of tone paviours is less marked.
I am sure that everyone hopes that the number of cars parking-places can be restricted to the 'promised' total of 50 (ie 12 per side on the square), and that the cars themselves will not be allowed to block the four main visual axes of the composition as at present. While easy parking is attractive to everybody, cars should be constrained in fine urban squares such as the unusual matched pair found in Richelieu. Otherwise the insatiable desire for convenience will result in little more being achieved for the town than a stylish (and rather expensive) municipal parking facility.
The square will have many trees to provide shade in the summer; the HORNBEAM (carpinus betulus) has been selected. The new saplings will be planted in the right season, after the hot and dry summer period, to allow their first fragile year to be ideal in 'arboreal' terms.
The public pavement surrounding the square, now four metres wide, is already being used by the hotels, cafés and restaurants.

A map of the 'Chinnonais', or the region around the town of Chinon

A map of the CITÉ IDÉALE, the castle park and their surroundings

The cadastral map of the walled town of Richelieu

The town lies on the points of the compass, with the grid plan following North, East, South and West (more or less!).
This map shows the cadastral property plan of the walled town. If you click anywhere on the image it will down-load a much larger version so that you can examine it. The main public buidings and squares have been indicated. The place du Marché, which is the main square at the bottom (S) of the plan, is under comprehensive restoration at the moment.

History of the château and town of Richelieu

In 1621, Armand-Jean du Plessis, then only Bishop of Luçon, bought the Seigneurie of Richelieu for the sum of 79,000 livres. The mediocrity of the manor and hence the revenues that it produced, did not really justify this action which the future Cardinal Richelieu had done for solely sentimental reasons; the glory of the name and the desire to win fame for his family gave him from this early period the idea of re-shaping the existing buildings. However it wasn't until 1624 that Richelieu, having by then become Cardinal and First Minister, found himself in the position to actually carry out the proposed works. But once the preparations were in place, the project was very efficient and things went forward very quickly. In 1625 Jacques Lemercier got Richelieu's approval for the designs of a vast palace; four master-masons and an entrepreneur-developer from Tours are given the responsibility of carrying out the works. In the period 1625-1626 alone, the Cardinal spends 24,595 livres on the construction of the new château.

At the end of 1626, Richelieu comes on site to take stock of the progress of the works. Apparently the project has already advanced a long way, as the Cardinal is preoccupied with the decorations. But the buildings which were then under construction only constitute the first phase of the realisation of the magnificent castle that the Cardinal is soon going to decide to construct on the site. In effect, the new visit to the estate at Richelieu in 1627 convinces Armand Jean du Plessis of the neccessity of a greater scope and amplitude to his projects. The siege of La Rochelle, the war in Italy, the difficulties in disputes around Marie de Medici do not prevent him from leading  - at the same time - the enlargement of his estates and the construction works on the large castle that he has now decided to build there. In 1628, Richelieu buys the estates of Mirebeau. This acquisition is follwed up in 1635 by purchases of the lands of l'Ile-Bouchard, the lordship of Faye-la-Vineuse, of Champigny-sur-Veude and the Seigneurie of Chinon. After the month of August 1631, the Seigneurie of Richelieu has a strong allure; now Louis XIII has elevated the estate to have 'Duke and Peer' status. Acquisitions and works are carried out without a break. The site at Richelieu occupies the efforts of several hundred workmen.

The new buildngs that are rising on the banks of the Mable river are isolated, far from other towns. The closest village, at a distance of four miles, is that of Braye, a tiny parish of which the church had seen the boy Richelieu with his mother, brothers and sisters on Sunday at mass. The Cardinal now wishes a real town to be at the gates of his castle. A few weeks after the elevation of the Seigneurie to 'Duke and Peer' status, the King, by letters patent, authorises Richelieu to create a walled town 'which in the future will perpetuate his name with the memory of his generous and prudent actions and faithful services'. In order to attract inhabitants, he institutes four fairs a year: they take place on the day of Quasimodo (first Sunday after Easter), the 4 July, the day of Saint-Remy and the King's day. In addition, makets are to be held each week on Monday and Friday. The Cardinal sees himself permitted to to construct the market halle, the shops and all the buildings and facilities necessary for the use of business. The inhabitants of the town enjoy a total tax exemption until the completion of the first one hundred houses. After that, they will pay two hundred livres a year which will be levied on the complete community: 'the strong carrying the weak'. The King's decision was enacted on 13 December 1631 in the Chambre des Comptes, and in January 1632 in the Cour des Aides.

From now on, to the works at the castle are added those of the new town of Richelieu. The building site brings together more than 2,000 workmen. The channelled Mable river crosses the park of the château before providing to water to the moat that girdles the town, following the strict framework of a rectangle of 700 metres by 500 metres - 350 toises long by 250 toises wide. Who will live in this town? The cardinal does not preoccupy himself with this for the time being. At the moment, his wish is to give form to the little city without waiting for the arrival of the first inhabitants. In addition to the public buildings, the Cardinal builds a number of houses along the Grand Rue which marks the main axis of the town. All his allies, friends and 'creatures', as well as the entrepreneurs charged with the works, are actively encouraged to proceed in the same way. The one most pressured to make his 'court' with the Cardinal is Maréchal d'Effiat, Minister of Finance. Soon Chancellor Bouthillier imitates him; his house was at number 6 in the Grande Rue. Thiriot, the master-mason who had constructed the marvellous dyke during the siege of La Rochelle, directs the works at the Cité du Cardinal; he too does not delay to follow into the steps of Bouthillier; likewise Le Masle after him, and others as well. In 1633, Cardinal de Sourdis of Bordeaux, while on a mission of inspection, informs Richelieu that only five houses are now required to complete the Grande Rue.

The cardinal donates the plots but imposes a strict plan, as Henri IV had done for the Place Dauphine and for the Place Royale (now the Place Vendome, Paris). Richelieu-townplanner fixes a restricting design specification. The house must look out both onto the street and a courtyard, with a façade width onto the street of ten toises (about 20 metres) and a depth of 8.5 metres. The dimensions of the entry arch were also given; the carriageway must be 6 pieds wide (2 metres); on one side there should open a good room with a chimneypiece. The entire disposition of the building is in this way determined, with the location of the stair, that of the stable, that of the privy (of which even the dimensions are fixed, 12 pieds deep (that is to say 4 metres), with 2 metres under the key stone of the vault). The hôtel included a piano nobile above which an attic shelters the domestic staff. The specification of materials is composed of the same precise detail. The candidate clients for the construction have hardly any choice in the enterprise either; they must go to one of the masons that Richelieu had appointed for the job and who charge a price of 10,000 livres tournois per house.

The impatience of the Cardinal causes a rapid advance in the works. In 1634, a visitor reports that several complete houses were ready, entirely constructed, fitted-out and let. Another, in 1638, that the girdle of the town is now complete, with its moats, ramparts and gates. The actual thickness of the walls is hardly impressive: the town is obviously not made to withstand a real siege. He also recounts how the beautiful houses built along the Grande Rue are occupied by 'small fry'; workers from the site, laborers, innkeepers. In 1637, the Township of Richelieu has been elevated into a Parish. A presbytery is constructed, the enormous size of which is going to allow shelter to an important mission of Lazaristes. Vincent de Paul comes in person to check in situ the conditions of the installation of his missionaries. Their busy activities, with those of the Filles de la Charité who have joined them, satisfies him completely. "I have never seen people more assiduous and devout to the Holy Mass" he wrote in 1638.

The chief architect, Jacques Lemercier, monopolised by the numerous projects that Richelieu has entrusted him in Paris, hardly comes any more. His brother Pierre establishes himself on site to supervise the building work. He dies in mid-task in 1639. He was buried in the church, now complete, just in front of the altar. Another of the Lemercier brothers, Nicholas, takes his place. In 1640 the château is practically complete, and the town starts to live a life of its own. Under its magnificent timber beams, the market place shelters fairs and markets which attract lots of people. Marriages are celebrated, baptisms carried out and, equally, the first tombs appear in the cemetery.

The same year, 1640, sees the foundation by the Cardinal of an academy or Royal College for the children of gentlemen living in the town and its surrounding countryside. The new building rises on the Grande Place (Place des Religieuses today). The King's declaration creating the Royal College recalls in its preamble that 'there is nothing in the governace of a State that is more dignified for a grand prince than to oversee the instruction of youth'. The text itself contains a critique of the education that is generally conducted elsewhere; is the Cardinal by any chance hoping to make the academy of his new town a temple to avant-garde pedagogy? It is explained to us in effect that instruction in 'dead' languages, by consequence of the extended time that it requires, discourages the young gentlemen and draws them to pass far too quickly to exercise in arms. We must foresee in his intent a better adapted and more modern education. It is for this reason that the Royal College of Richelieu will teach in the morning 'the purety of the French language, poetry, rhetoric, all parts of mathematics and philosophy in French'; the afternoon will be reserved for Greek and Latin and for exercises that 'go to the seemliness of our nobility'. The teaching staff will comprise eight royal professors, a director, a master-of-horse, a master-at-arms, an almoner, and six masters: for pike, dance, drawing, musical instruments, writing and physical exercise. The Royal College sees itself granted a monopoly of instruction in the town for a duration of twenty years -  less for courses in the French language. Students from outside the region are welcome as well; furnished accommodation is supplied for this purpose. Everything is arranged to receive them comfortably, even a tavern.

Richelieu will never see the completed château, any more than he will the town. After his early death in December 1642, the works slow down, despite the obligation made in his will to his niece, the Duchesse d'Aiguillon, to lead them both to completion. 

The Will that animated them is No More.

In 1633, La Fontaine visited the castle and the town; he records that the constructions are practically complete, but finds that the ensemble reveals an air of sadness. In the letter that he addresses to his wife to deliver his impressions, he writes that Richelieu 'will soon have the glory of being the most beautiful village in the universe'. The creation of the town ex nihilo seems to him to be an error, and the effect a pointless vanity. The town is implanted 'off the beaten track' of the big flows of transportation. It is true that the Cardinal had made a project to connect the Mable river to the Vienne river in a manner to allow navigation to serve his town, and that he had the grandiose intention of making the main route from Paris to Spain pass through Richelieu. But death intervened and prevented him from doing so. The new city is far from everything - in a rather infertile area - a living symbol of the limits of the human will.

The castle of the Cardinal has now disappeared. After the French Revolution, the inheritors of the Richelieu estate, judging the maintenance of the castle too costly, let it be destroyed. The vast park that you can admire today was reconstituted at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. A few pieces of the construction remain, two entry pavillions, the Chinon gate, an admirable Rotunda which was part of the stables. That is all. The town, in contrast, has survived. With its regular organisation, by the rythym of its façades, by the indisputable air of grandeur that emanates from it, the new town continues to bear proud witness to the man who gave it his name.

(translated from 'La France de Richelieu' by Michel Carmona published by Fayard in 1984, with many thanks.

463 pages, Publisher: Fayard (1984), Language: French, ISBN-10: 2213013462, ISBN-13: 978-2213013466)

Coats of Arms

The coat of arms of the ancient du Plessis family is the simple red reversed triple chevron. When the Cardinal achieved high office this simple blason was surrounded with the emblems of Cardinal (the hat & frogging), the Duke (coronet and ermine), Superintendant of the Navy (anchor), Order of the Holy Sprit (dove on cross of malta) . The simple yellow and red shield is the current coat of arms of the Town of Richelieu. But whose are the arms on the crossing ceiling in the church? The Bishop of? Pope x? I'll try to find out.
The Cardinals Arms are carved above the Grand Rue door to the original Court house, now the Mairie. The original carriage door has been infilled with a window at a later date.

Vins de Chinon

A couple of kilometers to the north of The CITÉ IDÉALE is the winegrowing area for the Appellation Controllé red wine called CHINON. This is made from cabernet franc grapes, often called 'breton'. Much loved since the days of local boy François Rabelais in the 15th century, this wine is a very drinkable middling sort of wine; straightforward without being simple, balanced without being either fruity on one hand or heavy and over-complicated on the other. Although the wine area is extensive, many think that the best CHINON wine comes from the north facing slopes near Lémeré, south of the Vienne river and the main flatter gravelly areas to the north, as these Côtes de Ligré CHINON wines are more complex and stand longer cellerage. Generally CHINON is drunk young; that is to say in the first four years. At present in 2007 the cost of a bottle of a good quality CHINON is about €7.50 rising to maybe €10. Some connoisseurs say that minor 'global warming' will enhance this red wine appellation as it is located a little to the north of so many French famous red wine areas.

The Virtual Château de Richelieu

Sadly the wonderful Château of Richelieu was finally sold for demolition in the 1830s, after the Napoleonic era and the escape of the ducal Richelieu family to St Petersburg. Although the huge Domainal Park and a few substantial fragments of the palace still exist, little remains of the original building on the moated island at the centre of the formal landscape composition. In 2004 the Council of the Department of Indre-et-Loire funded the 'building' of a full CGI computer model of the Château and the surrounding parterres and courts. Now one can enter the building and inspect the interiors and art collection as well as promenade the exterior, courts and gardens. Visitors can experience this extraordinary achievement, sitting in a darkened 17th century room at 28 Grande Rue, the town's exemplar of the 28 matching Hôtels Particulliers, wearing 3D red/green glasses. A lot more impressive than KING KONG!