“It was better when it was worse”
The four caryatids fatigued by the weight of the seasons still support what remains of a huge balcony on the park.
It was better when it was worse … and so what was once called the little Versailles, today is not that a pile of rubble.
A vague memory of wealth and splendor were.
Chateau de Saulxures-Sur-Moselotte was designed by Charles Perron and built between 1854 and 1861.
It was commissioned by the widow Elisabeth Gehin, owner of the important textile industry of Jean-Thiebaut Gehin during the heyday of industrial expansion.
Mrs. Gehin spended nearly two million French francs for the construction of his castle.
The architecture and decors were of high quality: wood inlay, large fireplaces in Carrara marble, sumptuous stairs, ceiling frescoes by Felix Haffner, sculptures, tapestries, nothing was too good for the construction of this building in the style of Louis XV, made by the greatest artists of the time.
The furniture were commissioned at the furniture maker Jeanselme Père et Fils, official supplier of the Crown of Louis Philippe I and Napoleon III.
The masterpiece of the sculptor Georges Clere, one of the designers of the new Louvre, frames the porch flanked by four caryatids representing the four seasons.
The prototypes in plaster of the caryatids that support the balcony are exposed to the Louvre in Paris.
Originally, two large winter gardens were connected to the main building with the two annexes.
What is the destiny of the facade of this jewel that is dying day by day?
Born in 1987, Jonathan is an internation author, one of the most famous about “Urbex”. He is one of the most active in Ascosi Lasciti project. He is attracted by history, aesthetic beauty, architecture of abandoned places in all over Europe.
