| Globe Trotting: Buy a Spectacular $27M Chateau Built on a Layer of Marble Oct 25th 2012, 15:15 Of the castles out there, for sale and not, few possess the grandeur and stature as Chateau D'Aubiry in Céret, an artsy town at the foothills of the Pyrénées in Southern France. Commissioned by Jean Bardou—who made a name for himself by inventing cigarette rolling papers—for his son, the 13-bedroom home was designed by Viggo Dorph-Petersen, a Danish architect who was "very much in demand at the time," according to the (translated) brokerbabble. Today Dorph-Petersen's work, which wrapped up in 1900, remains an essentially untouched example of a baroque masterpiece from the Belle Époque: room after room of opulent, well-preserved interiors; a grand entrance, stairs, balustrades, and columns all made from Pyrenean marble (which the building itself sits upon); frescoes by the Versailles-born artist Henry Perrault; and themed bedrooms like a "Chinese room decorated in honour of Bao Dai the last emperor of Indo China." Also on the 12-acre grounds are a chapel, which was finished in 1912, English gardens, a pool, and a "conservatory entirely decorated with painted ceramics." It's ultra-strange that there's only one full bath and one powder room—which are "all highly appointed," brags the brokerbabble—to serve nearly 32,300 square feet, but, as Arch Digest explains, Chateau D'Aubiry was "built before bathing was a part of everyday life." Of course, now it's the modern era and the castle comes with a very modern ask: €21M, or roughly $27.4M. · Chateau D'Aubiry, CERET Perpignan, LA 66400, France [Sotheby's International Realty via Architectural Digest] |
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