Condé Museum

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You are invited to the duc d’Aumale. Sheltered in the heart of the Château de Chantilly, the Musée Condé is the second largest collection in France, after the Louvre, for old paintings from the 15th to the 19th century. Indeed, no other French museum presents three Raphael, three Fra Angelico, several Clouet, four Watteau, five Nicolas Poussin, five Ingres, three Delacroix, etc, all of great quality.

The fact of one man

Henri d’Orléans, Duke of Aumale, son of King Louis-Philippe and heir to a large part of the fortune of the Princes of Condé, is passionate about art.

To reconstitute the heritage of his family that disappeared or was sold during the ups and downs of history, he acquired a fabulous collection. He also inherited the collection from his uncle and father-in-law, the Prince of Naples and Sicily.

Back in Chantilly after the exile, in 1875, he had a castle built next to the Petit Château to replace the one destroyed during the Revolution. From the outset, in addition to the apartments and reception rooms, he planned galleries to house and present his accumulated collections. He also set up a library with 1,500 manuscripts, 200 of which are illuminated, including the most famous of them “The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry”.

An inalienable museum

In his will of June 3, 1884, the Duc d’Aumale, without direct heir, bequeathed his collections, along with the rest of the Domaine de Chantilly, to the Institut de France.
In accordance with the wishes of the Duc d’Aumale, the presentation of the works has remained unchanged since the 19th century, offering a unique opportunity to travel back in time and discover a museography typical of that period. The whole of this fabulous treasure is only visible in Chantilly because the legacy of the Duc d’Aumale forbids any loan of the works…

Everything can be visited, we are at the Duc d’Aumale’s house.

Today, practically the entire castle can be visited: the large galleries, the library, the small flats inhabited by the Duke of Aumale, the large flats located in the Petit Château with the most famous rooms of the castle, the singeries with walls covered with a set of painted decorations animated by monkeys imitating the actions of man and caricaturing the greats of this world.

To complete your visit

Click on this link to discover an idea for a bike ride, or download the app ‘rando Parc Oise’ to be geolocated.

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