Jean-Baptiste Courtonne (1712-1781) was a popular architect in the 1740s, the son of Jean Courtonne (1671-1739), the architect of the Hôtel Matignon in Paris, commissioned in 1722 by Christian-Louis de Montmorency-Luxembourg, prince of Tingry. Courtonne le Jeune is best known for the construction of the new château de Villarceaux, for which he adopted his father’s ideas, such as front sections decorated with a pediment. A beautiful piece of ironwork, in the Louis XV style, forms the entrance gate which opens in the middle of a ‘saut-de-loup’ (ditch). Courtonne adapted the architectural style of the Parisian mansions to the countryside.