Tigers Decorative
The French Beastie Statue
The French Beastie Statue
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This is a composite stone model of the original beastie statue, which flanked the main staircase to the entrance of the Chateau de Pierrefonds, designed by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. He now stands on an English oak plinth.
Circa 1900
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Chateau de Pierrefonds went through several rounds of transformation through the ages. It existed in the 12th century and was rebuilt in the 14th century. During the turbulent reign of Louis XIII in the 17th century, the castle was destroyed and only restored in 1857 by architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc and Emmanuel Fremiet , under the commission of Napoleon III.
Viollet-le-Duc was the mastermind behind the restoration of Cathedral de Notre-Dame and many other medieval buildings. Like the majority of his work, he came up with new designs by reinterpreting Romantic and Gothic architectural traditions. In that sense, this is how he envisioned a castle of the Middle Ages.
All over the Chateau are gargoyles and mythical beasties, which were carved in stone in the mid 1880's.
Over the years the castle has often been used as a location for filming. The BBC used Pierrefonds as the location of Camelot for its hit series Merlin in 2008-12. Pierrefonds also made an appearance in the film The Man in the Iron Mask, based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas.
