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The Château de Chantilly is a historic château located in the town of Chantilly, France. It comprises two attached
buildings; the Grand Château, destroyed during the French Revolution and rebuilt in the 1870s,
and the Petit Château which was built around 1560 for Anne de
Montmorency. It is owned by the Institut de France, and is open to the
public.
The château's art gallery, the Musée Condé, houses one of the finest
collections of historical paintings in France (after the Louvre), with special strength in French paintings and
book illuminations of the 15th and 16th centuries. The library of the Petit
Château contains over 700 manuscripts and 12,000 volumes, including a Gutenberg Bible, Les très riches
heures du Duc de Berry and Jean Fouquet's Book of Hours of Etienne
Chevalier.
The park, featuring extensive parterres and water features; was laid out
principally by famous landscaper André Le Nôtre for the Grand Condé. It
also contains an English garden with cascade, and a number of pavilion
buildings.
The estate overlooks the Chantilly Racecourse and the Grandes
Écuries (Great Stables) which contains the Living Museum of the Horse.
According to legend, Louis Henri, Duc de Bourbon, Prince of Condé believed that he would be
reincarnated as a horse after his death. In 1719, he asked the architect, Jean Aubert to build stables
suitable to his rank. These 186m long stables are considered by some as the most
beautiful in the world. (document wikipedia)
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