CHASTILLON, Claude

(b. ~1560 Châlons-sur-Marne, d. 1616 Paris)

French topographical draughtsman and engineer. He was born into the provincial gentry in Châlons-sur-Marne. Although the title that he assumed, Topographe du Roi, does not correspond to any known post of this period, that of Ingénieur du Roi did exist and designated a member of a corps created in the early 16th century that specialized in fortification, the art of besiegement and hydraulics.

Chastillon is recorded in the service of Henry IV by 1595, when he received the relatively large sum of 1500 livres, evidence of the importance of the work he rendered in the civil war (1589) and the later frontier wars. He seems to have been a valued adviser of Henry IV’s minister, the Duc de Sully, for he was entrusted with important civilian assignments: he produced an expert evaluation, in 1606, for the completion of the Cordouan lighthouse at the mouth of the Gironde River, a plan for a semicircular public place for the north-east entrance to Paris and a plan for a square in the new town of Henrichemont, Cher, the last a private development started by Sully. He also contributed to the building of the hospital in the Place des Vosges in Paris.

Project of the Place de France in Paris

In the last of Henry IV’s great town-planning projects, the Place de France (conceived c. 1608), the practical and symbolical sides were both clearly emphasized. Only a small part of the scheme was carried out, but we know the whole from the engraving prepared by Claude Chastillon, who in the legend tells us that he and the engineer Jacques Alleaume were responsible for the design. It consisted of a semicircular space closed along the diameter by the walls of Paris between the Porte St Antoine and the Porte du Temple. In the middle of this diameter was a new gate, the Porte de France. Round the circumference were seven buildings for markets and other public services, separated by roads leading radially from the Place itself. These roads were cut by an outer ring of streets, some distance behind the market buildings. Each street bore the name of a French province, so that the whole plan was a symbol of national as well as civic pride.

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The Chapel of Notre-Dame de Lisieux

This engraving by Claude Chastillon was published by Jean Boisseau in 1648 in the “Topographie fran�oise”. It shows the magnificent Chapelle de Notre-Dame de Lisieux in Normandie.

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