Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte

Photo by Hubert.

Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte is part of the Tentative list of France in order to qualify for inclusion in the World Heritage List.

The Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte is a Baroque castle built in the mid-17th century for Nicolas Fouquet, the superintendent of finances of the young King Louis XIV. The property also includes a large garden and extensive parks. The luxurious castle and its lavish interior are considered to be the reason for Fouquet's removal as finance minister and his imprisonment. Vaux-le-Vicomte is known as ‘The castle that made the Sun King envious’.

Map of Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte

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The coordinates shown for all tentative sites were produced as a community effort. They are not official and may change on inscription.

Community Reviews

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Jakob Frenzel

Germany - 28-May-19 -

Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte (T) by Jakob Frenzel

August 2018 - what would be the best way from Fontainebleau to Provins, the next Whs? We took a small detour via  Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte.

We thought that we might enter the park and walk around just like in Fontainebleau, but no, you had to pay entrance, and that was really high, something like 20€? No we had already seen a lot and were planning to see even more. So we took a foto, ticked off the site and went frther on to Provins. We didnt want to reach that town in the dark, since we still needed to find a capground. So again a nice little castle, but definietly not worth to stand on the list on its own.

But it seems to be a busy spot, close to Paris, many toursist are visiting that one.


Wojciech Fedoruk

Poland - 03-Nov-17 -

Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte (T) by Wojciech Fedoruk

This beautiful palace is located on the way from Fontainebleau to Paris. I was quite surprised as in the rainy Sunday afternoon the palace attracted more tourists than Fontainebleau and its large parking was almost totally occupied.

Entrance fee is 17 EUR normal, 13.5 reduced, so it is quite expensive, but the palace is a private property and its maintenance is, I assume, consuming lots of resources. The total area of the palace and the huge gardens is 500 hectares, out of which the formal French garden, which requires a lot of care, is 33 hectares.

The palace’s construction commenced in 1656 by Nicolas Fouquet, high official in Louis XIV court. Very soon the owner was arrested and condemned to life sentence. Ancestors of the current owners bought the palace in XIXth century.

Currently the palace is quite well preserved and it takes some time to visit it properly. If you want to visit the huge garden, there are melexes that can take tourists – distances are indeed quite big. According to the brochure provided, visiting the palace and all garden area with huge Hercules statue requires half a day tour.

The palace is one of the earliest entries on French T-List (1996) and no information was provided on its possible inscription. I am also not aware what could be an outstanding universal value of the object but anyway it was a pleasant visit not only for WHS or TWHS fans.


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