Château de Meudon

The former Château de Meudon, on a hill in Meudon, about 4 kilometres southwest of Paris, occupied the terraced steeply sloping site. It was acquired by Louis XIV, who greatly expanded it as a residence for Louis, le Grand Dauphin. It was largely ignored under Louis XV and Louis XVI, but became the official residence of the King of Rome from 1812, and was occupied by Jérôme Bonaparte under the Second Empire. The main building was largely destroyed in a fire in 1871, and it is now the site of the Observatoire de Paris-Meudon.

Nothing is known of the medieval fortress that preceded the manoir du Val de Meudon before the 14th century. In 1527, the castle was given by Cardinal Antoine Sanguin to his niece Anne de Pisseleu, duchesse d'Étampes, mistress of François I. Around 1540, a Renaissance style château, was completed at the edge of the present terrace.

In 1552, the duchesse d'Étampes ceded the château to Charles, Cardinal of Lorraine, who embellished its interiors and created Renaissance style gardens commemorated in poetry by Pierre de Ronsard. The Italian architect, painter and sculptor Primaticcio executed the grotto in the Italian mode, with rooms carved in the rock and filled with fountains. Remnants of the terrace that supported it now support the great dome of the Paris Observatory. The orangery that survives may have substantial 16th-century origins as well.

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Wikipedia