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Laversine Park, Oise, France

In 1874 Gustave de Rothschild bought Laversine Park on a vast plateau overlooking the Oise, and in 1882 he built a house there in the style of a Louis XIV château. The architect he commissioned was Alfred-Philibert Aldrophe who was familiar to the family, having already worked on 23 avenue de Marigny in Paris as well as 41 rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, and who designed for Mayer Carl's daughter, Alexandrine, the château de la Vallière in 1890. Family life was happy there, and a later member recalled the château echoing to the sounds of conversation among Cécile, Gustave's wife, and her three daughters.

When Robert and his wife Nelly inherited the house in 1911, Robert redesigned the interior décor, commissioning the sculptor Max Blondat and painter José Maria Sert to assist him. The house was open from September to January each year, first for polo and then for the shooting season.

During the First World War Laversine was used as a hospital where Nelly worked as a nurse. In the Second World War the house was occupied by the the Marshall of the Third Reich, Hermann Goering. It was given to the nation in 1950 and was occupied by a children's centre in one wing, while the other is used for a centre for vocational instruction known as the Robert and Nelly de Rothschild Foundation.

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