Ivan Turgenev European Museum
Ivan Turgenev’s datcha
A former estate of La Chaussée, which had belonged to the de Mesmes family, from whom the Empress Joséphine had bought it in 1813. The Palladian-style house was built in 1830.
In 1874, the property was bought by Ivan Turgenev who later sold it to the opera singer Pauline Viardot, Maria Malibran’s sister. He kept the usufruct of it and the following year had a half-Russian, half-Swiss style chalet built behind the house where he lived until his death in 1883.
In 1978, La Celle-Saint Cloud town hall bought the property in a public sale and restoration work began in 1979. This residence provided a home for the Ivan Turgenev museum in 1983 and the “Dacha” was inaugurated on the 100th anniversary of his death. The two buildings were listed in the additional inventory of National Heritage Sites of France in 1983
Guided tours during the week for groups by appointment.
Ivan Turgenev’s Dacha is part of the “Route des Maisons d’Ecrivains” (Writers’ Homes Route), a series of places where Dumas, Maeterlinck, Zola and numerous others stayed, lived and wrote.