Location: Hardelot, Pas de Calais departement Map
Constructed: 12th century, major renovation 19th- 20th centuries
The Château d'Hardelot is a fortified castle located in the town of
Condette in Pas-de-Calais, France. The current castle is a mansion
completed in the middle of the 19th century, on foundations dating from
1222. It has the shape of a polygon with nine towers, surrounded by two
wide concentric ditches and installed on a hill overlooking the marshes
and the lake of mirrors. It is close to the seaside resort of
Hardelot-Plage, a resort to which it gave its name.
Today, it
houses the Cultural Center of the Entente Cordiale, devoted to relations
between the French and the English, and hosts the Midsummer Festival
every summer. It is at the center of the regional nature reserve of the
Marais de Condette.
From the origins to 1900
The first castle, then called
Château d'Ardrelo, was built in wood by the Counts of Boulogne
in the 12th century. It was there that in 1194, Renaud de
Dammartin signed the first communal charter of Boulogne.
The current castle was built by Count Philippe Hurepel de
Clermont, son of King Philippe Auguste, from 1222 to 1231.
Captured and retaken, this fortress saw French, English and
Burgundian troops pass through its walls. In 1615, Marie de
Medici had the castle besieged by Marshal d'Ancre because it was
then occupied by Protestants. It is then largely destroyed and a
farm takes place in the middle of the ruins. The original
curtain walls still remain today.
The events of 1789
hardly affected the parish of Condette en Boulonnois. The
approximately 380 inhabitants are mainly concerned about the
invasion of the sands of the coast. The castle was put up for
sale as national property in 1791, and it was the lord of
Châteaubourg who bought it for 26,400 pounds.
In 1820,
the castle was again sold with its 880 hectares of dunes and
warrens which went down to the sea. A few years later, in the
hope of stopping the advance of sand in the land, the first
softwood plantations. In 1848, the castle was acquired by the
Englishman Sir John Hare, a Bristol magistrate, who attempted to
restore the medieval ruins. It was at this time that the writer
Charles Dickens regularly came to Condette to, in particular,
live his affair with Ellen Ternan in complete discretion.
In 1865 Captain Henry Guy bought the castle and built a
neo-Tudor style mansion above the 13th century underground
passages and one of the best preserved towers. His daughter
Helen Guy would become a famous composer in her time under the
name of "Guy d'Hardelot".
Contemporary period
In 1897,
the Englishman John Robinson Whitley bought, together with
several of his friends, the castle and its outbuildings
(meadows, dunes, marshes, woods, copses and the Claire-Eau
ponds). The castle then becomes the center of attraction of the
region: golf, tennis, hunting, fishing, archery, etc. He
participated in the creation of the seaside resort of Hardelot
to attract wealthy socialites and aristocrats from France and
England. In 1910, several hotels and restaurants were
established near the castle. During the First World War, the
castle was at the disposal of the British army. In 1934, Abbé
Bouly, the parish priest of Condette and Hardelot, famous for
being the father of dowsing, bought it. It is then occupied by a
congregation of nuns.
In 1979, the castle served as a
filming location for Tess, a film by Roman Polanski.
It
was ceded in 1987 to the municipality of Condette, which
entrusted the land to the Boulonnais Regional Natural Park. In
2001, a 50-year emphyteutic lease was signed between the General
Council of Pas-de-Calais and the municipality of Condette in
order to install a cultural center there. In September 2007, the
General Council of Pas-de-Calais undertook a gigantic renovation
project after the discovery of dry rot in the framework,
woodwork and walls of the castle.
On June 13, 2009, the
Cultural Center of the Entente Cordiale was born. This project
is set up by the General Council of Pas-de-Calais in order to
maintain, with the county of Kent in the United Kingdom, the
famous “Entente cordiale”. It develops quality cultural
programming around British culture, through all forms of art
(music, visual arts, cinema, literature, heritage). Exhibitions
are organised: Louis Blériot (2009), Napoleon à la sauce
anglaise (2010), Charles Dickens (2011), Camp du Drap d'Or and
Renaissance du look (2012). In 2013, the exhibition From the pen
to the reel: costumer literature was presented, curated by
Benoît Grécourt, general manager of the Château d'Hardelot -
Cultural Center of the Entente Cordiale. Bringing together
nearly fifty film costumes from French and British literature,
it is the last exhibition presented in the castle, then empty of
sets and collections.
Every June the Midsummer Festival
is organized, an important festival of early, baroque and
classical music in the context of a removable Elizabethan
theater, installed for the occasion at the foot of the castle
ramparts. The artistic director, Sébastien Mahieuxe, brings
together internationally renowned artists. The British soprano
Dame Felicity Lott is the godmother.
In 2014, the
interiors of the castle were refurbished to create a permanent
exhibition dedicated to the history of the castle and
Franco-British relations. The interior decorations, inspired by
English and French residences from the second half of the 19th
century, were created by the architect specializing in
historical decorations Gaël Noblanc. The furniture presented is
partly made available by the Mobilier national. A collection of
works of art is put together by the Château d'Hardelot and
supplemented by works from the Louvre, Boulogne-sur-Mer and
Saint-Omer museums. The director, Benoît Grécourt and Stephen
Clarke are responsible for curating the permanent exhibition.
Tudor-inspired gardens are created outside the medieval walls.
They are the work of landscapers Emmanuel de Quillacq and
Christophe Laborde.
On June 5, 2014, an Elizabethan
theater project, designed by the firm of architect Andrew Todd,
was presented to Queen Elizabeth II at the British Embassy in
Paris by Dominique Dupilet, president of the department of
Pas-de- Calais and Benoît Grécourt, general manager of the
château. In June 2016, the new theater was inaugurated. Located
in the park of the castle, it is entirely made of wood (larch,
spruce, oak and bamboo) and can accommodate 352 spectators in
conference mode, 388 maximum in “Elizabethan theater” mode.
The interior of the castle was used as a setting in 2016 for
the film Ma Loute by Bruno Dumont.
refurnishing
The
Mobilier national deposited 66 pieces of furniture at the
Château d'Hardelot. In particular, there are a pair of planters
from the collections of the Duchess of Berry, rosewood furniture
from the Ministry of State under Napoleon III and Second Empire
libraries from the Rotschild collections. The most important lot
is a series of ten English frame chairs dating from the 18th
century. To evoke the Entente Cordiale between France and Great
Britain, objects related to this alliance have been set up: a
marble bust of Napoleon III by Lefèvre-Deumier, a bust of Émile
Loubet in Sèvres biscuit, a statuette also in Sèvres biscuit
representing the allegory of Peace by Alfred Boucher.
The castle is neo-Tudor in style, incorporating a medieval tower and erected above the 13th century underground passages.