How this Boston designer turned a dilapidated, 350-year-old chateau into her whimsical fantasy house
Many dream about owning a French chateau, but this Boston architect made her fantasy a reality.
Many dream about owning a French chateau, but one Boston architect made her fantasy a reality.
“It was one of those dreams I’ve always had,’’ said Monika Zofia Pauli of architectural firm Pauli & Uribe Architects. “I’d long been studying magazines of French real estate for the fun of it.’’
When Pauli and her family found a historic chateau for sale in Gers, France, in 1996, the architect’s wish suddenly didn’t seem so far-fetched. The clan knew they had found something rare.
According to Upscale Magazine, the powerful Archbishop of Auch originally built the Chateau de Bassoues in the 14th century. The home came with a 43-meter-high Gothic tower (one of the tallest in France) and a central fortified courtyard.
The tower, owned by the French government and used as a museum since 1860, was well-preserved, but most of the chateau fell into disrepair in the 1660s and was rebuilt then using mostly original materials.
Though parts of the chateau were in ruin and local contractors called it “beyond salvation,’’ the Pauli family bought it.
Parts of the home had no plumbing or electricity, and one room was still being used as a stable. There were even mattresses stuffed with straw still lying in some rooms.
“We were able to pursue it, but it was much more difficult than you’d imagine,’’ Pauli said, describing the renovation as her hardest project yet. “It was a labor of love.’’ She declined to say what the family paid for the property.
Rather than trying to modernize the home, Pauli said they embraced the chateau’s history. She wanted it to be comfortable enough to live in, but still feel ancient, whimsical, and artistic. She did modernize the kitchen and bathrooms, however.
Since the Pauli family had no desire to ever sell their dream home, they didn’t have to worry about impacting its resale value, Pauli explained, “So the limits were wider on what should and shouldn’t be done.’’
Pauli & Uribe Architects, which has restored historic homes in Beacon Hill and around Greater Boston since 2007, did much of the restoration, limiting alterations to partitions, original materials, and surfaces. For 1660s-era windows, the family ordered casement-style ones that boast sweeping views of the Gascony countryside and the Pyrenees Mountains.
Story continues after gallery.
A glimpse inside the Chateau de Bassoues:
Perhaps the most amazing part of the refurbishment involved the restoration of original decorative wall paintings in the home’s corner turret, done by Monika Pauli and her mother, Danuta Pauli, an artist who studied painting and drawing in Krakow, Poland in the 1960s.
In other rooms, the pair painted Renaissance-style murals on the walls to enhance the home’s Old World aura. Pauli got most of the furniture from American and French antique shops, and is still looking for the finishing touches.
“I don’t follow any trends,’’ Pauli said, “but I do get inspired all the time. Going to a museum, or looking at an article in an architectural magazine…you analyze a lot of things and you realize what you do and don’t like. Personality matters, and your dream home should be different from somebody else’s. Always.’’
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