About the Museum
The Château de Chantilly’s rich history spans from the 14th to the end of the 19th century when it became a public museum. Located 25 miles north of Paris, it was the ancestral home of the prestigious Montmorency and Bourbon-Condé dynasties. In 1830, Henri d’Orléans, Duke d’Aumale and son of King Louis-Philippe, inherited the estate and devoted his life to its reconstruction, restoration and embellishment. Upon his death in 1897, the Duke bequeathed to the Institut de France a considerable legacy comprising castles, gardens and park, and stables.
The bequest included the Duke's extraordinary art collection, meticulously assembled over several decades. Today, the Musée Condé is one of the premier museums in France and houses hundreds of Old Master paintings and drawings by the most renowned artists such as Raphael, Botticelli, Van Dyck, Poussin, Watteau, Ingres, and many others. A passionate bibliophile, the Duke d’Aumale possessed a vast library of some 50,000 volumes dating from the 10th century to contemporary times. He acquired some of the greatest known treasures of medieval manuscript illumination such as the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry and the Livre d’Heures d’Etienne Chevalier as well as 700 incunabula and thousands of other rare specimens.
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