Château de Maintenon

Maintenon, France, France

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Château de Maintenon is a historic château in the village of Maintenon in the Eure‑et‑Loir département of central France, on the banks of the Eure River not far from Paris and Versailles.

It began as a medieval fortress in the 13th century and was gradually transformed into a Renaissance‑style residence, most notably in the 16th and 17th centuries when it became the private estate of Françoise d’Aubigné, known as Madame de Maintenon, the secret second wife of King Louis XIV.

The site is famous both for its well‑furnished interior that reflects her life at court and for its elegant formal gardens designed by André Le Nôtre, as well as the nearby unfinished aqueduct built by Vauban to carry water from the Eure to the gardens of Versailles, which now curves dramatically through the park as a striking ruin.