During his reign, Napoleon I established his cavalry officers training school in the Château-Vieux. Temporarily, Saint-Germain-en-Laye became Montagne-du-Bon-Air. During the French Revolution, the name was changed along with many other places whose names held connotations of religion or royalty. The terrace provides a view over the valley of the Seine and, in the distance, Paris. Saint-Germain-en-Laye is famous for its 2.4-kilometre (1.5 mi) long stone terrace built by André Le Nôtre from 1669 to 1673. James lived in the Château for 13 years, and his daughter Louisa Maria Stuart was born in exile here in 1692. Louis XIV turned over the château to James VII & II of Scotland and England after his exile from Britain after the Glorious Revolution in 1688.
Louis XIV was born in the château (the city's coat of arms consequently shows a cradle and the date of his birth), and established Saint-Germain-en-Laye as his principal residence from 1661 to 1681. Kings Henry IV and Louis XIII left their mark on the town. The " Dame de Brassempouy" sculpted on a mammoth's ivory tusk around 23,000 years ago is the most famous exhibit in the museum.
This museum has exhibits ranging from Paleolithic to Celtic times. In 1862, Napoleon III set up the Musée des Antiquités Nationales in the erstwhile royal château. Francis I was responsible for its subsequent restoration. The old château was constructed in 1348 by King Charles V on the foundations of an old castle ( château-fort) dating from 1238 in the time of Saint Louis. Prior to the French Revolution in 1789, it had been a royal town and the Château de Saint-Germain the residence of numerous French monarchs. He spent the remainder of his days there, and died on 16 September 1701. In 1688, James II, King of England and VII of Scotland, exiled himself to the city after being deposed from the throne in what has become known as the Glorious Revolution. Saint-Germain-en-Laye was founded in 1020 when King Robert the Pious (ruled 996–1031) founded a convent on the site of the present Church of Saint-Germain. Saint-Germain-en-Laye lies at one of the western termini of Line A of the RER.Ī view of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, taken from the castle. Because it includes the National Forest of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, it covers approximately 48 km 2 (19 sq mi), making it the largest commune in the Yvelines.
Saint-Germain-en-Laye is a sub-prefecture of the department. With its elegant tree-lined streets it is one of the more affluent suburbs of Paris, combining both high-end leisure spots and exclusive residential neighborhoods (see the Golden Triangle of the Yvelines). Inhabitants are called Saint-Germanois or Saint-Germinois. It is located in the western suburbs of Paris, 19.1 km (11.9 mi) from the centre of Paris. Saint-Germain-en-Laye ( French: ( listen)) is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. His influence is immeasurable.Īppreciation by Julian Gascoigne from Sothebys.1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km 2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries. Every artist who has held a brush in the last 160 years owes a debt to Turner. By applying the techniques of a water-colourist to the use of oils, with successive layering of translucent colour thinly applied to the surface, that imbues his canvases with rich, hazy light, he gave his works a poignancy and power that had never been achieved before, and has seldom since. Yet the development of his art, particularly in the last fifteen years of his life, with its bold application of colour, its treatment of light and the deconstruction of form, revolutionised the way we perceive the painted image, and the way we think about what a painting is, or should be. He was, in many ways, a highly individual artist, seemingly running against the current of the artistic taste of his age. Turner had no pupils he left no school of followers. An artist rooted in the aesthetic philosophy and culture of his time, who perpetually engaged with the art of both his predecessors and contemporaries, he was at the same time possibly the first ‘modern’ painter who directly inspired the impressionism of the nineteenth century, and presaged the abstract expressionism of the twentieth. Turner is one of those conspicuous figures that mark the pages of history – like da Vinci, Darwin, Picasso or Einstein – who changed the way we see and think about the world.