Château Saint-Georges Motel

Château de Saint-Georges Motel is a château in Saint-Georges-Motel, in the Eure department in northern France, that was built in the early 17th-century. The Château was listed as a French historical monument on 9 June 1977.[1]

For Bordeaux wine producer, see Château Saint Georges (Côte Pavie).
Château de Saint-Georges-Motel
The front elevation, c. 1900-1920
LocationSaint-Georges-Motel, Eure, France
Coordinates48°47′37″N 1°22′03″E
OwnerPrivate owner
Designated9 June 1977
Location of Château de Saint-Georges-Motel in France

History
Jacques Balsan and Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan (formerly the Duchess of Marlborough) in Saint-Georges-Motel.

In the middle of the 13th century, an old château belonging to Aimery de Muzy is mentioned in St. Georges-Motel that served as a residence for Eudes II Rigaud, the Archbishop of Rouen from 1247 to 1276.[1] From 1427, the Motel lands were owned by the Chevalier Jehan de Pilliers and remained in the family until the French Revolution.[1] In 1590, King Henry IV spent the night on the estate before winning the Battle of Ivry that united France.[2] Eure is also home to the Château de la Héruppe and Le Breuil-Benoît Abbey.[1]

The current château was built in the early 17th-century and today is a 10,000-square-foot castle surrounded by a moat on a 235-acre property that includes eighteen outbuildings.[3] The main building is flanked by two side pavilions, all covered by a steep slate roof. The façade is rubble stone framed by window openings of brick with dressed stone around the building edges.[1]

In the 1922,[4] the château was purchased as a summer house by American heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt when she was married to the French aviator and industrialist Jacques Balsan,[5] after her divorce from Charles Spencer-Churchill, 9th Duke of Marlborough.[lower-alpha 1][7] During the Balsan years, the interiors of the château were redesigned by Maison Jansen, the Paris-based interior decoration office founded in 1880 by Dutch-born Jean-Henri Jansen.

While Consuelo owned the château, Prime Minister Winston Churchill was a frequent visitor.[8] The artist Paul Maze, Churchill's friend and artistic mentor, had a studio in the Château's mill, the Moulin de Montreuil.[9][10] Consuelo's ownership of the château inspired her mother, Alva Belmont, to purchase the Château d'Augerville in Augerville-la-Rivière.[11] After Paris fell in June 1940 during World War II, Jacques and Consuelo left from the château, beginning their journey across France to Spain, where they eventually traveled to New York aboard a Pan Am Clipper from Lisbon.[12]

In 1978, the château was again owned by Americans who listed the residence for sale for 10 million French francs.[13] In the late 1980s, Catherine Hamilton, president of the American Friends of Versailles, and her husband, David Hamilton, a Chicago-based businessman, purchased the château for $6 million.[14] In 2017, they listed it for sale for $8.21 million.[2]

Park

The park was designed by prominent landscape architect André Le Nôtre. During the Second Empire, the park was transformed by Louis-Sulpice Varé, designer of the Bois de Boulogne and the park at Château de Châtenay-en-France and Château de Bandeville for the Comte de Pourtalès-Gorgier.[15] In the 20th century, landscape designer Achille Duchêne further transformed the park.[1]

Historic monument

The Château de Saint-Georges-Motel was listed as a historical monument on 9 June 1977, including the moat, the water mirrors, the park and its central alley.[1]

  • Southeastern view of the château surrounded by a moat, c. 1900-1920
  • The château surrounded by a moat, c. 1900-1920

References
Notes
  1. During the Balsan years, Saint-Georges-Motel was home to another American heiress that married into the European aristocracy. The Countess de Viel Castel (formerly Annah Dillon Ripley), the daughter of Sidney Dillon Ripley and granddaughter of Henry Baldwin Hyde (the founder of Equitable Life Assurance), who married Count Pierre Joseph de Viel Castel; they lived at Château de la Héruppe in St. Georges-Motel.[6]
Sources
  1. "Saint Georges Motel > Château" (PDF). www.eure.gouv.fr (in French). Unité Départementale de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine de l'Eure (DRAC Normandie) Conseil. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  2. Mitchell, Heidi (August 17, 2017). "A Luxury Real-Estate Proposition". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  3. Lovell, Mary S. (2017). The Riviera Set: Glitz, Glamour, and the Hidden World of High Society. Simon and Schuster. pp. 151, 190, 192–193. ISBN 978-1-68177-579-1. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  4. Balsan, Consuela Vanderbilt (2012). The Glitter and the Gold: The American Duchess---in Her Own Words. Macmillan. p. 239. ISBN 978-1-250-01718-5. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  5. Soames, Mary (2012). A Daughter's Tale: The Memoir of Winston Churchill's Youngest Child. Random House Publishing Group. p. 116. ISBN 978-0-679-64518-4. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  6. Social Register, Summer. Social Register Association. 1923. p. 91. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  7. "HISTORIC CHATEAU FIGURES IN SALE; Abondant, Famous Seigneurie Near Paris, Dates Back More Than 300 Years" (PDF). The New York Times. 19 September 1937. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  8. Lehrer, Steven (2013). Wartime Sites in Paris: 1939-1945. SF Tafel Publishers. p. 107. ISBN 978-1-4922-9292-0. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  9. "Sir Winston Churchill, K.G., O.M., F.R.S., HON. R.A. 1874-1965 | CHÂTEAU ST-GEORGES-MOTEL". www.sothebys.com. Sothebys. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  10. Churchill, Winston; Reves, Emery; Gilbert, Martin (1997). Winston Churchill and Emery Reves: Correspondence, 1937-1964. University of Texas Press. p. 212. ISBN 978-0-292-71201-0. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  11. Brough, James (1979). Consuelo: Portrait of an American Heiress. Coward, McCann & Geoghegan. ISBN 978-0-698-10782-3. Retrieved 3 March 2020.
  12. "After the Palace - Some of Consuelo Vanderbilt Spencer-Churchill Balsan's post-Blenheim homes —". www.schoolfieldcountryhouse.com. November 10, 2019. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  13. "Country Life". April 1978: 1175. Retrieved 29 October 2020. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  14. Brown, Patricia Leigh (22 April 1999). "American Pennies In French Fountains". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  15. "Château de Bandeville". polytechnique.edu. Bibliothèque Centrale de l'École Polytechnique. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
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