The Consummate Metagelical
Last weekend there was a ceremony held in a little park called Potager du Dauphin in my hometown Meudon. The ceremony marked the completion of the restoration of a small Russian orthodox chapel located in the park. I provide here a short background history of the park and the chapel before introducing you to a particularly interesting life associated with this site.
Consider the partial map of Meudon below. The Av. du Chateau leads up to the Terrace de L’Observatoire, the site of the Château de Meudon. Along the avenue is the Potager du Dauphin. The word dauphin translates to dolphin, but referred to the oldest son of the king during the time of The Sun King Louis XIV. A potager is a vegetable garden.
The physical relationship between the Avenue du Chateau, l’Observatoire, and the Potager du Dauphin. The avenue in early spring.
The Grand Dauphin
Louis, Dauphin of France (1 November 1661 – 14 April 1711), commonly known as le Grand Dauphin, was the eldest son and heir apparent of King Louis XIV and his spouse, Maria Theresa of Spain. He became known as the Grand Dauphin after the birth of his own son, Louis, Duke of Burgundy, the Petit Dauphin. He and his son died before his father and thus never became kings. Instead, his grandson became King Louis XV at the death of Louis XIV, and his second son inherited the Spanish throne as Philip V through his grandmother.
The Château de Meudon dates back to the 13th century. It was purchased by Louis XIV for his son; the Grand Dauphin, who lived at the chateau from 1695 until he died there in 1711. You can imagine that as the Grand Dauphin was heir to the throne for a relatively old king, Meudon was an important place; perhaps second only to Versailles. The extensive waterworks and garden were designed by the same landscape architect who planned those in Versailles, André Le Nôtre. In 1709 a new building designed by the renowned architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart was added adjacent to the old chateau called, without inspiration, the Château-Neuf (new chateau).
In the 18th century Madame de Pompadour was the officially designated chief mistress of Louis XV. Only in France could there be an official position of mistress to the king. He built for her the Château de Bellevue that was located along the line of the Ave. du Chateau (through the top of the map above, though virtually nothing remains of it today). Thus, I imagine there were many royal promenades between the chateaux.
In 1795, during the revolutionary period, the old chateau burned to the ground though the cause is believed to be accidental. In 1870 Prussians took this ideal site for artillery to bombard Paris. The Château-Neuf was damaged in the battle. Demolition was considered, but most of it was preserved and became an observatory with an astronomical telescope in 1878. Today the building itself sits unused but on this site is a center for astronomy in France and that is the reason it is called Terrace de l’Observatoire. Richard Wagner wrote the opera The Flying Dutchman while living on the Ave. du Château in 1841. A refugee from revolutionary Russia, the pianist and composer Nicolas Medtner, lived on the avenue for a time in the 1930s.
The Château-Neuf looks like it was designed to have a telescope.
Beautiful modern house with a view of Paris designed by Jerome Rol located on Ave du Château across from the Potager du Dauphin.
During the French Revolution, the Potager du Dauphin  was confiscated and sold into private hands. The property was acquired in 1946 by the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits, which founded the Saint-Georges Boarding School to welcome young Russians (Orthodox Christians) in exile. Meudon had been a haven for Russian refugees from the time of the revolution in 1917, thus it was naturally a prime location for this kind of school. Their affiliation with the Russian Orthodox Church was respected, including in the celebration of worship. A Byzantine chapel was created in what was once a greenhouse. With the fall of the USSR and the end of religious persecution, the Saint-Georges boarding school gradually lost its appeal, as young Russians preferred to study directly in Russia rather than in Meudon. This is why the Jesuit Fathers sold this property in 2002 when it was acquired by the city of Meudon. I believe the weekend celebration for the restoration of the chapel and for Russian cultur
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