Château d'Abbadia
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43°22′39″N 1°44′57″W / 43.37750°N 1.74917°W
| Château d'Abbadia | |
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| General information | |
| Architectural style | Neogothic |
| Country | France |
| Construction started | 1864 |
| Construction stopped | 1879 |
| Owner | French Academy of Sciences |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) | Eugène Viollet-le-Duc |
The Château d'Abbadia, also Château d'Abbadie, is a neogothic château situated in Hendaye, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France. Built by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc and Edmond Duthoit, both patronized by the explorer Antoine d'Abbadie, between 1864 and 1879, it is classified as a historic monument and "Maison des Illustres". The scientific collections, archives and furniture are all authentic and make up a considerable cultural heritage of the 19th century.
Decoration, Inscriptions and Bestiary
The castle is distinguished by the richness of its ornamental materials (woodwork, staff, earthenware, painting on plaster, textiles)[1], its polychrome interior decoration[2], the eclecticism of its inspiration, from the radiant Gothic to the orientalism, very fashionable at the end of the 19th century and tinged with romanticism.
Everywhere, formulas in Basque, Irish, Guèze, Arabic, Latin, English or German testify to the cultural curiosity and philosophical values of Antoine d'Abbadie. Basque maxims such as Bizi bedi euskara (Long live Euskara) celebrate the Basque Country. Scholars such as Jules Mohl, a member of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, participate in the elaboration of ornamental inscriptions.
Four halls have allowed to express the oriental inspiration:
- The room of honor
- The Persian boudoir of the bedroom, circular, implanted in a turret
- The Moorish smoking room, of circular architecture (2.40 m in diameter and 2.20 m high) in the South Tower
- The Arabic living room on the first floor.
All contribute to the stylistic mix of the building[3].
Other ornaments recall the explorations of the Abbadian brothers in Ethiopia. The emblematic or symbolic animals bear witness to the 19th century's taste for orientalism. Crocodiles, snakes, elephants, monkeys, shells, etc., an exotic fauna covers the outside walls of the castle on the facades, stairs and collumns. A dog, a frog, a snail and a cat chasing a rat complete the procession. Viollet-le-Duc drew the bestiary of the porch, the main staircase and probably the sanctuary.
References
- ^ DELPECH, Viviane. "Le château d’Abbadia, monument idéal d’Antoine d’Abbadie". www.euskonews.com (in French). Retrieved 2021-01-13.
- ^ Delpech, Viviane (2016), "La collaboration de Viollet-le-Duc et Duthoit aux châteaux d'Abbadia et de Roquetaillade", Viollet-le-Duc, Presses universitaires du Septentrion, pp. 151–168, ISBN 978-2-7574-1390-6, retrieved 2021-01-13
- ^ Delpech, Viviane (2014-07-09). "Le château d'Abbadia sur la corniche basque ou les paradoxes d'une demeure orientaliste au XIXe siècle". In Situ (24). doi:10.4000/insitu.11067. ISSN 1630-7305.
External links
- Château d'Abbadia, official site
- Publications of Abbadia Observatory, digitalized on Paris Observatory digital library
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