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The 'Château d'Anet' is a French château near Dreux built by Philibert de l'Orme for Diane de Poitiers, the mistress of Henry II of France from 1547 to 1552^[1]. It was a gift from the king and was built on the former château at the center of the domains of Diane's deceased husband, Louis de Brézé, seigneur d'Anet, Marshal of Normandy and Master of the Hunt.
The château is especially noted for its exterior, notably the statue of Diane de Poitiers as Diana, goddess of the hunt, by Jean Goujon^[2] and the portal by Benvenuto Cellini. Anet was the site of one of the first Italianate parterre gardens centered on the building's facade in France; the garden-designer in charge was Jacques Mollet, who trained his son at Anet, Claude Mollet, destined to become royal gardener to three French kings.
The château was built partly upon the foundations and cellar vaults of a feudal castle that had been dismantled by Charles V and was subsequently rebuilt as a Late Gothic manor of brick and stone.
The château was not pillaged during the Revolution, but Diane de Poitier's remains were removed to a pauper's ditch in the parish cementary and the rich contents of the château, property of the duc de Penthièvre, sold at auction as ''biens nationals''. A large part was subsequently demolished, after Alexandre Lenoir salvaged some architectural elements for his ''Musée des monuments français'' situated in the present École des Beaux-Arts, Paris. The elements were reinstalled at Anet after World War II. The restoration of the château itself, in pitiable condition, was due to comte Adolphe de Caraman, who purchased it in 1840 and undertook colossal works of restoration. In 1851 the Minister of the Interior granted Anet the status of a ''Monument historique''. Under financial duress, Caraman sold the château in 1860 to Ferdinand Moreau, who continued the restoration, purchasing fuirnishings and works of art that had the reputation of having belonged in the château.
The free-standing chapel of Anet, built to the left of the ''cour d'honneur'' in 1549-1552, is designed on a centralized Greek cross floor plan under a diagonally-coffered dome. Its facade has a porch of widely-spaced paired Ionic columns between towers crowned by pyramidal spires.In 1581, Henri III and his mother Catherine de' Medici were present at the baptism in the chapel of the son of Charles, duc d'Aumale.
There is also the mortuary chapel, built according to Diane de Poitier's last wishes to contain her tomb, commissioned from Claude de Foucques by Diane's daughter, the duchesse d'Aumale.
The castle was used as a filming location in the 1965 James Bond film ''Thunderball''.

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Notes

References

Notes

1. The date 1552 is inscrivbed on the gateway.
2. The original is now in the Louvre. A copy is at Anet.

References

★ "Le Château d'Anet"

★ Patrick Pochon, "Anet"