Chateau de Menars

Built from 1646, for Guillaume Charron de Menars (1604-1669), Advisor to the King and General Treasurer of the French Troops during the Thirty Years War. It is most famously associated with the chief mistress of King Louis XV, Madame de Pompadour (1721-1764), who acquired it in 1760. She commissioned the King's architect, Ange-Jacques Gabriel (1698-1782), to add the wings either side of the 17th century pavilions. In 1900, some of its sculptures and statues were purchased by Edward Berwind and integrated into the garden façade of The Elms, his summer home at Newport.