About the author:
Vasily E. Molodyakov (Tokyo, Japan), LL.D. (Political science), PhD in History, Professor, Takushioku University.
ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5892-0473
E-mail:
Abstract:
In the life and work of French writer and essayist Charles Maurras (1868– 1952), born in a Provençal town Martigues (Dept. Bouches-du-Rhône), ancestral estate Chemin de Paradis (Way to Paradise) belonged to his mother’s family occupied a very special place. Maurras spent there at least one month a year, taking off newspaper and political work, wrote books, engaged in landscape design and hosted guests. Built in the late 17th century the estate is integrated with the garden, lanes of cypresses and olive grows in the neighbourhood. Thinking the manor as his familial estate as well as the quintessence of his “small motherland” (Martigues) Maurras filled the garden with historical relics and designed the memorial architectural composition La Mur des Fastes (Wall of Glory) as its semantic center. That’s why estate Chemin de Paradis may be considered as one of the most important artworks of Maurras equal to his major books. Minstrel of his native Provence and Martigues Maurras wrote numerous poems and essays about his estate which in his life-time became one of town’s famous places and was pictured on postcards. Now this is a municipal house-museum open to public.