From House to Château

Tags

Chateau, France, home, life, renovation

Quite some years ago a book came out entitled A year in Provence, it was a best seller, everyone read it and many then travelled to Provence and bought homes with dreams of turning them into B&B and living on French wine, baguette and cheese without speaking French. Then came Under the Tuscan Sun, later another book entitled A year in Tuscany came out. Same idea of idyllic life in Tuscany without speaking Italian. Tuscany is only one province of Italy, the rush of tourists saw a sharp price increase and though we could travel for lunch in Florence from Rome easily, we often preferred to travel across to the Marche Province on the Adriatic for our annual vacation. Or how about Sicily? love that Island, it’s food and splendid wines.

So from buying a house, renovating it and doing a Shirley Valentine number many realized that it was not that simple and the difficulties quickly mounted. The BBC did a series on Provence and Brits who had come to discover it charms as detailed in the book. Most within 2 years discovered real life is not a book, many sold and moved out, too many problems, language and different attitudes and differences made for more problems than they had bargained for. Same in Tuscany, unless you have oodles of money and can come and go at will, think again.

Now we have gone from buying a house to buying a French Château no less, with grand gates and huge parkland plus many other buildings like a chapel and barn, keepers cottage and stables. All in need of major rebuilding, renovations and continuous maintenance. This idea is out there and the internet offers opportunities buyer beware.

One is the Chateau de Gudanes in the Pyrennées, an Australian family bought the half demolished castle about 10 years ago and have been rebuilding it, a major undertaking. They now have a shop on the internet and they sell stuff which is suppose to be items from chateau life. The couple who bought the place appear to have split up, only the wife remains and as for the kids it is not clear if they returned to Australia. Apparently renovations continue but lately I noticed it is always the same pictures of projects from some years ago. They no longer have the teams working nor the experts from Paris coming down to help out.

Château de Gudanes

Another Chateau is La Grifferaie in Anjou, bought by an American Evangelical couple who plan to use the place for Bible studies for Americans. The rest could be used as a B&B. The couple is from Oregon, they really look out of place in Anjou.

Yet another is the Chateau de Purnon, bought by a young Australian couple, a huge place. I wonder where do they get their money to buy such an estate in Aquitaine. There are lots of Château for sale in France, some are in pristine conditions while others need major work. In this case the couple speak French which is a big help in an isolated region. They are also getting some governmental help on renovations for this Château built in 1717.

Chateau de Purnon

The BBC had a series on mansions and great homes bought by people who had a dream of renovating such places. Many such great homes were built more than 200 years ago and required expert work. Some where nothing more than ruins, why would you buy such a place. One fellow who had made a fortune in IT renovated an old Bishops palace with ornate rooms, this required experts to rebuilt and restore decorative elements, the end result was truly magnificent but you wonder how much did it cost.

The unusual case of John Montague, the Earl of Sandwich and his wife the Countess who live at Mapperton a place mentioned in the Doomsday Book, the mansion house dates to 1540 with their daughter-in-law Julie Montague, their son Luke Montague Viscount Hichingbrooke, her husband help run and renovate the Estate as a business venture. The beautiful gardens of Mapperton can be rented for weddings. On the Estate they even have their own church which dates back to the 12th Century. Julie and Luke run the place in order to pay for the upkeep which is considerable.

I do wonder where this fascination in people comes from, I recall some visitors at Government House here in Charlottetown which was built around 1834 and remains to this day the home and workplace of the Lieutenant Governor of PEI. This visitor said to me how wonderful it would be to live in such a grand mansion. Knowing the background of the place, I do not think so, such homes are rarely comfortable and are more designed for representational purposes than relaxation and home life.

MAPPERTON HOUSE

Another trip to the dentist

Tags

Nicholas II, renovation, Russia, Tsarkoye Selo

My reputation as the Colgate smile poster child is being tested. The treatment of Monday did not work out, so tomorrow that molar has to come out. Oh well so is life.

Amongst the many things I read on the internet some topics I have been following for years. One such topic was the reconstruction of East Berlin from 1990 to today. It is quite amazing when you know that the City of Berlin in May 1945 was nothing more than a field of ruins, very little survived the intense bombing between 1942 to 1945.

At the end of the war the city was divided between East and West, the eastern part was given to the USSR and the western part was carved up between the UK, France and the USA. West Berlin was rebuilt, whereas the East, especially the old historical part of the City was left in ruins until 1990. The Soviet Union was making a political or ideological point. Only after re-unification up until now has major reconstruction taken place, transforming the city and bringing back its heritage buildings and parks.

Russia and the City of St-Petersburg has also seen major restoration since Vladimir Putin has ruled that country, he is a native son of the city and hundred of millions of rubles have been spent on rebuilding palaces, cathedrals, refurbishing palaces and its work of art and furniture. Millions of tourists visit the city each year just to see all the numerous palaces and churches and museums including the Hermitage which requires a whole week by itself for a visit.

Outside of St-Petersburg, going South some 24 Km away on the seashore, the various Tsars starting with Peter the Great built themselves Summer Palaces, Catherine the Great and many others did the same, then the nobility followed suit. So much so that this area was called the Tsar’s Village or Tsarkoye Selo. Many renowned architects mostly Italians came to design these palaces and gardens. Unfortunately, first the revolution of 1917 but more damaging was the occupation of the German army in June 1941 for 900 days ravaged the area so severely that only naked ruins remained.

After the war the government of the USSR spent time and money to restore some of the palaces, but mostly to turn them into dormitory for the poor or schools or government buildings.

The Alexander palace which sits across from the Catherine Palace, so named for Empress Catherine I in 1717 and then enlarge by Empress Elizabeth I a few years later. A third Empress Catherine II the Great will again beautify and enlarge it.

Catherine II decided to gift her grandson his own palace called the Alexander Palace built in 1792, he later became Tsar Alexander I who defeated Napoleon during the Russian campaign. The last Tsar Nicholas II and his wife and children lived in that Palace away from St-Petersburg, for reasons of safety. This will be the place were he and his family are arrested by the Provisional Government of Alexander Kerensky and deported to their death in Siberia. Until 1941 the palace was a museum to the Tsar and his family. However with the arrival of the German army, many of the treasures were moved to Moscow and the palace was abandoned to the Nazi who quickly destroyed it. It sits in a very large park with many pavilions and other attractions built for the pleasure of the Imperial family.

When the Arts council of St-Petersburg decided to start rebuilding the Palace in the 1990’s it was under the direction of Vladimir Putin who also decided to rebuild other palaces and churches making of the entire area a showcase for the world.

In the case of the Alexander Palace, the building had to be rebuilt, new roof, new floors and extensive historical research to present the palace as it was in 1917 when the Imperial family still lived there. No small feat, given the extent of the destruction, luckily large archives of photos and other documents helped greatly the historians.

The Alexander palace will re-open in 2022 and all the work will be completed by 2024. Some wonderful photos have come to us from the Tsarskoselskaya Restoration Workshop http://@tsarskoselskaya_workshop

They reproduced, tiles for the bathrooms and fireplaces, curtains and wallpaper, plaster work, chandeliers, woodwork and furniture, all of it had been destroyed. A gigantic piece of detailed and historically accurate work, all matching the historical photos of the rooms. Any visitor will be able to appreciate how the family lived in their private family palace. A very different place than the Winter Palace which was used for Official functions only.

A photo of the room with the chair used by the Tsar to read his newspaper,

Chair reproduced and to be placed in the mauve drawing room.

Entre-sol of the Maple room of the Empress, the tiffany glass around the mirror was re-created, and all the plater work of leaves and roses also had to be re-created, only charred brick survived.

Curtains reproduced for windows and over doors.

Period photos to help reproduce the furniture.

Hopefully one day we may return to St-Petersburg to see it again.

Alexander Palace and the great park in Tsarkoye Selo.

Did not mean to scare the horses

Tags

2019, Berlin, City Palace, construction, Humboldt Forum, renovation

My post yesterday may have conveyed the wrong idea, if I go by the comments I received. I was trying, in my second language, to convey that retirement meant that I had to re-invent myself and find new interests, which is not always easy to do. At least I am not sitting in front of the television set 24/7 and becoming a couch potato, mind you it would be difficult to do since we do not have a television and starring at the walls is not my thing anyway. It is just another challenge in 2016 to move into news digs but I wanted to re-decorate our apartment and re-paint etc, so this is the opportunity.

Speaking of re-invention since 1997 I have been following developments on the restoration, rebuilding, rejuvenation of Berlin and specifically the re-building of all the buildings that once existed in the historical centre of the capital before 1939 and the devastation of the War. A master plan is being followed and after reunification of the two Germanys in 1989, the fall and removal of the wall, the capital moved back from Bonn to Berlin which has only been the Capital of a unified country since 1870. Prior to that Berlin was the Capital of Brandenburg and of the Kingdom of Prussia.

The first building that needed to be rebuilt and restored was the Reichstag which had been torched and then bombed between 1933 and 1945. A British architect was hired, Sir Norman Foster to re-think how the re-christened building now called the Bundestag (Federal Parliament) would look. The whole philosophy the German Political elite came up with was to focus on Enlightenment and Ideas, leading to a transparent building where the affairs of the new Germany would be conducted. Foster retained the outside walls with all the symbols of Imperial Germany, the original building was built in 1894, but he imagined the new inside would be all glass including the dome, anywhere you look you see through walls and floors, the idea being that transparency = truth, Germany would be an open democracy for all to see.

You can see the difference in the old and the new German (Reichstag) Bundestag. 

In the meantime in 1946 Germany was divided, the Iron Curtain fell and down Unter den Liden avenue just 3 Km away on the ruins of the old Imperial City Palace rose the new Parliament of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), a building full of the typical Communist Kitsch of the 1970’s

The old palace had stood on this site since 1443 remodelled many times, expanded and after 1870 remodelled yet again to now represent the new Unified German Empire, all baroque and over the top.

The site of the German Democratic Republic Parliament occupied only a third of the ground occupied by the Old City Palace, the rest of the space as seen in this photos was a parking lot and parade ground. I saw it in the last years before its demolition in Berlin and it was an ugly building. It was Communist functional and also full of asbestos, this is what led to its demolition, which took several years because of the risk of removing all this asbestos.

I have followed the debates for some years how the Municipal administration in Berlin, the Brandenburg State and the Federal German Government have handled the demolition of the East German Parliament and reconstruction of the City Palace. There was a lot of discussions in the Bundestag and in the Senate and many votes on motions and who would pay for what and most importantly what would be the use of the rebuilt City Palace which is scheduled to cost around 750 million Euros.

The idea of re-building was finally accepted by the Senate and the Parliament after it was proposed that an international competition would be held to find an architect who would handle this project, Italian architect Franco Stella won the competition with his design. The Palace could not be a copy of the old demolished one and there would be no restoration of the original rooms or decor. The theme of the rebuilt Palace would be the Humanities and World Culture and it will be called the Humboldt Forum after the famous 18th century philosopher scientist. The only original elements of the old Palace would be the three facades in the Wilhelmine Style of the 1890’s, the West facade, the South and the North with the original portals, the East facade is utterly post-modern strangely enough given that it was the oldest side of this palace. The point of recreating those facade was to blend in with the Lutheran Cathedral and all the other classical buildings in the area forming the Fridericianum, meaning in the style favoured by Frederick II the Great (1712-1786).

The idea of re-building the Palace came from one man a Hamburg businessman and aristocrat Wilhelm von Boddien who lobbied and advocated as of 1993. He also proposed that the re-built exterior facades West, South and North would be financed by public donations and the interior work would be financed by the German Federal Government. The finished product would be run and administered by the City of Berlin, the Humboldt University and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.

So I have been following the construction from the website and here are some photos http://berliner-schloss.de/en/. What is astonishing is the high degree of care and the number of artists, sculptors, archeologists, historians and Academics involved in this project. Donations from around the world have pored in and famous visitors have come to see the construction site. The project is scheduled to be completed by 2019.

The Palace will occupy its original footprint meaning it is very large and will dominate the area. So far in the last 4 years the ground was prepared after meticulous archeological digs into the old cellars of the demolished palace which were simply covered over. The reinforced concrete shell of the building has been completed and now the brick work and sculpted stone ornamental elements are being added including the windows, the dome of the Palace chapel is also in place, though not the lantern.

The walls are very thick if you look carefully at the photos and the men working on the brick work. On top of the brick work will be added later a coat of cement which will be painted to give the exterior walls their final colours.

Here you see men, bricklayers working, you can see how huge the windows of the Palace are compared to them.

Here we see a worker measuring as the carved stone blocks are put in place on the Western Portal (main gate) of the Palace. You can also judge the thickness of the concrete skeleton structure.

You can see men working on the Western Portal of the Palace installing the carved stone blocks on top of the concrete skeletal structure. The higher portal was originally used by the Emperor and the smaller portals on either side by other family members. Similar design as one found in Imperial palaces in China.

This photo shows how thick the concrete walls are and then on top 3 layers of red brick and on top the carved stone elements. Very solid construction. The naked brick will get dressed with a coat of cement which will be painted to give a finish look to the walls.

Five levels of scaffoldings to allow workers to lay the bricks and stone carvings. For the first 3 floors of the Palace structure, gives an idea of the height of the ceilings.

 

This mock up shows the finish look of the walls of the Palace with its carved elements. However much more complicated carved elements will also adorn the Portals and large bronze tablets will also be affixed to the main Western Portals proclaiming the glory of Prussian kings.

The Eastern facade on the Spree River with a view of the Lutheran Imperial Cathedral of Berlin, very modern look on that facade to indicate that the Palace is a re-construction.

Built to last obviously.

A maquette of the old Palace as it was before its destruction during the Second World War. The other buildings in this display have all been restored to their original look and are part of the Museum Island complex housing the Royal collections. The five museums were also bombed and all the buildings have been restored. David Chipperfield was another famous architect who worked on the restoration of the museums.

The dome of the Royal Chapel of the Palace, 24 meters circumference and 9 meters high. Missing is the lantern on top with its dancing angels supporting a Latin Cross. A donor is sought for that item which is quite expensive according to the catalogue. Originally the chapel was large enough to accommodate 600 persons.

The South elevation of the Palace once construction is completed in 2019.

In 2019 the view of the Museum Island, the Lutheran Cathedral and the Palace (Humboldt Forum).