“A ‘fairly ugly house,’ can you imagine?” chuckled a voice from our group, quoting a historical figure. He was right here, looking at the Vestiges du Petit-Château de Bercy with us. These crumbling remains, tucked away in the modern Parc de Bercy, hold the faint whispers of a grand past. The Vestiges du Petit-Château de Bercy, or Château du Petit Bercy as it was once known, started life as a pleasure house built around 1730. This “ugly” house, as the Duke of Luynes rather bluntly put it, changed hands many times throughout the 18th century. It even saw a fleeing Duke of Penthièvre after a devastating flood in 1751. Imagine the opulence he left behind, only to be swallowed by the rising waters! The once-elegant gardens vanished under mountains of wine barrels in the early 1800s. Wine merchants, sensing an opportunity, had begun to take over the area. The Petit-Château de Bercy itself became another casualty of progress. Demolished in 1877 under a public development decree, it was almost lost to time. It wasn’t until 1988 that remnants of its walls, having been absorbed into the very fabric of the wine warehouses, were rediscovered. Standing here, amidst the tranquility of the park, it’s hard to picture the hustle and bustle of Bercy’s wine trade. Yet, within these fragmented walls, the echoes of laughter, despair, and the sweet aroma of wine linger. The Vestiges du Petit-Château de Bercy may be just that, vestiges, but they remind us that even within the heart of a bustling city, ghosts of forgotten grandeur can still whisper their stories.
Центральный дом работников искусств
Step through the grand wooden doors of the Central House of the Workers of Art, and you’ll be transported to