Château de Bois-Préau

En un regard

Le château en bref

In Rueil-Malmaison, a stone's throw from La Malmaison, the Château de Bois-Préau forms, together with it, one of the two sites of the national museum dedicated to Napoleon and Joséphine. The original residence was built at the end of the 17th century by the printers Frédéric Léonard and his son, then passed from hand to hand during the 18th century, between a former cook of Marie Leszczyńska, the Marquis de Prie and the banker Louis Julien. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Empress Joséphine annexed the property to her estate at La Malmaison: she housed members of her household there and kept her library and collections there. On her death in 1814, the property passed to her son Eugène de Beauharnais, before being sold by his family. The present château, rebuilt around 1854–1855 for Baron Rodrigues-Henriques, subsequently belonged to the journalist Benoît Jouvin. In 1920, the American philanthropist Edward Tuck and his wife Julia Stell acquired the property, then gave it in 1926 to the Musées nationaux, along with its landscaped park of around sixteen hectares, dotted with pools and remarkable trees. As an annexe of the Musée de la Malmaison, Bois-Préau reopened its ground floor in October 2022 after restoration and now hosts temporary exhibitions.