The Palais Vaissier (also called the Château Vassier or Palais du Congo) was a large Orientalist mansion in Tourcoing, Nord, (France), which served as the distinctive home of industrialist Victor Vaissier. It was designed by French architect Édouard Dupire-Rozan and built in 1891–92, but was demolished in 1929. Two of its outbuildings, the residences of its concierge and the gardener, have been preserved, however, and can be viewed today from the street.
Background The area of the département du Nord in the second half of the nineteenth century was notably associated with exoticism and colonialism. The Musée industriel et commercial et des colonies was created in Lille in 1853, to be renamed the Musée commercial et colonial in 1884, no doubt spurred on by the area's links to overseas shipping. This sparked a more general curiosity for the exotic and "the other," including the representations of African, Asian and Australasian natives as "savages." At the same time, the first industrial workers began to arrive from Kabylia, the coast of Algeria, to work in the coal mines in Valenciennes and the textile factories of Roubaix, and dockworkers from Africa and Asia found employment in Dunkirk. Victor Vaissier, an industrialist born in Roubaix in 1851, was one of the most successful manufacturer of soaps and perfumes in France at the end of the nineteenth century, and positioned himself at the center of this milieu. He fashioned himself as the "King Makoko," and starting in 1887, he organized local cavalcades featuring the Prince of Congo, the emblem of his soap brand La Savonnerie du Congo. That March in Roubaix, a fantastical parade celebrating Africa took place, with Vaissier playing the part of the king. His was not the only brand of French soaps that played on exotic, Orientalist tropes, however. Vaissier's products were branded the "Savon du Congo" [Congo Soap], and his factory employed some 400 industrial workers, along with 15 office staff and 20 traveling salesman, with numerous shops abroad, including in Johannesburg, Tunis, and Copenhagen. Vaissier's products were regularly shown at international exhibitions between 1888 and 1906, and many examples of the packaging and lithographed labels, some in the Art Nouveau style, still exist. They were held in such high esteem that Vaissier became an official supplier of soaps and perfumes to Leopold II, King of Belgium (who, infamously, personally owned the territory of the Congo in central Africa); the King of Romania; the Royal Court of Spain; the Bey of Tunis; the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits and its subsidiary, the Compagnie Internationale des Grands Hotels.
History and design Vaissier dreamed of building for himself a residence that reflected his high aspirations, his economic status and future ambitions. He no longer would live between the blackened walls of his factory on the rue de Mouvaux in Roubaix, and instead planned to move to a plot of land located at the exact same address (2, rue de Mouvaux) in neighboring Tourcoing. The plot of land on which the house sat is so close to the municipal boundaries between the two cities that postcards depicting the Palais Vaissier in the early twentieth century frequently situated it in either municipality, as well as varying their identification of the structure as the "Château Vaisser," "Château du Congo," "Château de M. Victor Vaissier," and "Château des Princes du Congo" being the most popular.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
