La cour des Offices du château de Fontainebleau : genèse d’un espace et aperçu du quotidien

Abstract

It was during the recent restoration works on the Quartier Henri IV at the Château de Fontainebleau that a preventative archaeology diagnosis of the courtyard was possible. The purpose of this operation was to identify the earlier constructions prior to the existing buildings, which were documented by a series of drawings and engravings made by the architect Jacques Androuet Du Cerceau in the sixteenth century. It was also the opportunity to learn more about the origins of this part of the castle and its interactions with the city of Fontainebleau. With the exception of a section of a protohistoric ditch, the vestiges found belong mostly to the sixteenth century, with a part dating to the late Middle Ages. While the organization and characteristics of the buildings observed from the late Middle Ages could not be determined, those that succeeded one another from the sixteenth century were compared with drawings and engravings from the period. These highlighted certain discrepancies that call for caution in the use of the graphic documents and stress the interest of an archaeological approach. The excavation of a latrine pit, filled in during the second half of the sixteenth century, shed new light on diet and tableware, as well as the care of body and mind in the complex society of a royal palace. Among the remains of everyday life that were discovered were three jewels in enamelled gold, including a hairpin with the figure of Catherine de’ Medici.

Keywords

• Château de Fontainebleau
• Quartier Henri IV
• Cour des Offices
• Jacques Androuet Du Cerceau
• Catherine de’ Medici
• latrine pit