• The Orgemont family in the Middle Ages

In 1484, Pierre d'Orgemont, who was childless, bequeathed Chantilly to his nephew Guillaume de Montmorency. The only traces left from the ancient medieval fortress of the Orgemont family are the bases of seven towers lying in the moat.

• The Montmorency family in Chantilly during the Renaissance (1484 - 1632)

Le Connétable Anne de Montmorency (1493 - 1567), companion in arms to François I at Marignan, played an eminent political role under François I and Henri II, who both often visited Chantilly.

He had the medieval château renovated by the architect Pierrre Chambiges. Around 1560, he commissioned the architect Jean Bullant, who was already working on his Château d'Ecouen, to construct the Capitainerie or Petit Château, the most ancient standing part of Chantilly.

Anne de Montmorency, le Connétable

Anne de Montmorency also had the terrace laid out, where today stands his equestrian statue by Paul Dubois (1886), and had seven chapels built, three of which survive today.
Chantilly is the home to various works of art from the Château d'Ecouen, including forty four stained glass "grisaille" windows representing the love story of Psyche and Cupid (1542 - 1544).
His grandson, Henri II de Montmorency (1595 - 1632) had the Maison de Sylvie constructed in the grounds of the Château. After rebelling against King Louis XIII, he was decapitated in Toulouse in 1632. Chantilly was then confiscated by Louis XIII.

•The Condé family in Chantilly (1643 - 1830)

In 1643, Chantilly came into the hands of the Condé family. Louis II de Bourbon Condé (1621 - 1686), known as Le Grand Condé, transformed the estate by commissioning the landscape architect André Le Nôtre, the future designer of the Parc de Versailles, to design the grounds. Le Nôtre canalised La Nonette river to create Le Grand Canal (1671 - 1673), laid out the French borders to the north of the Château, had Le Grand Degré constructed by Daniel Gittard, and created the present perspective from the Grille d'Honneur to the terrace.

Le Grand Condé

Le Grand Condé turned Chantilly into a venue for parties and garden fêtes and a place where a literary circle including La Fontaine, La Bruyère, Bossuet, the Bishop of Meaux who would later write the funeral oration for Le Grand Condé, Madame de La Fayette and Madame de Sévigné often met. In their honour, the two parallel alleys, on either side of the Le Nôtre borders, were given the name "Allées des Philosophes". Chantilly was the home to Molière's play Tartuffe, and Le Grand Condé gave balls and firework displays in this enchanting site.


18th century. The son of Le Grand Condé, Prince Henry Jules (1643 - 1709) commissioned Jules Hardouin Mansart to transform the Grand Château. Mansart's work was completed by Jean Aubert.

Louis Henri, Prince de Bourbon Condé (1692 - 1740), the prime minister of Louis XV from 1723 to 1726, commissioned Jean Aubert to build the Grands Ecuries, a masterpiece of the 18th century, and to decorate the apartments of Le Petit Château. He also set up the porcelain factory in Chantilly and set up a natural history room.
He employed the artists Oudry, Desportes, Huet and Nattier to decorate the rooms.

His son, Louis Joseph, Prince de Condé (1736 - 1818), was responsible for building the Jeu de Paume in 1756 and the Château d'Enghien, a long, classical building situated on the right of the Grille d'Honneur, built by Jean François Leroy between 1769 and 1772. In 1774, he had the Jardin Anglo-Chinois laid out and Le Hameau constructed, a group of five peasants' houses which inspired Queen Marie Antionette to build Le Hameau in the Trianon. Hostile to the ideas of the Century of Light, he emigrated when the Bastille fell and, in 1792, formed the army of emigration, nown as the Condé army.

The Duc d'Aumale. Louis Henri Joseph, Duc de Bourbon (1756 - 1830), without an heir since the execution of his son the Duc d'Enghien in the moat of the Château de Vincennes in 1804, bequeathed his property in 1830 to his eight year old great nephew and godson, Henri d'Orléans, Duc d'Aumale (1822 - 1897), the fifth son of King Louis Philippe.

"Henri d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale (1822-1897) by Jalabert (1866)

A professional soldier, the Duc d'Aumale had his baptism of fire in 1840 in Algeria, distinguished himself in May 1843 in the taking of La Smalah of Abdel Kader, and subsequently became governor general of Algeria.

Under the July Monarchy (1830 - 1848), he had his private apartments decorated by Eugène Lami, and commissioned the architect Duban to build a wooden gallery leading to his apartments. He also planned to rebuild the Grand Château, but had to leave France after the 1848 Revolution.

Exiled from 1848 to 1870 in Twickenham, near London, he built up the magnificent collections that are now conserved in Chantilly.

When he returned to France after 1871, a widower and having lost his two sons at the ages of 18 and 21, he had the Grand Château reconstructed between 1875 and 1885 by the architect Honoré Daumet to house his collections.

In 1884, the Duc d'Aumale, a member of the Institut de France since 1871, bequeathed Chantilly to the Institut under the condition that, on his death, the Condé Museum would be opened to the public and that the presentation of the collections would not be changed or loaned out. The Condé Museum was opened to the public one year after his death, on the 17th April 1898.