Salon · 1880s-1895
Lady Caithness's “Holyrood” mansion, Duchess of Pomar
Address · 124, avenue de Wagram, 75017 Paris
Metro · Wagram (3) / Pereire (3, RER C)
Today · Gone. Mansion demolished, replaced by a modern building.
The story
Avenue de Wagram, running northeast from the Étoile, was lined with private mansions at the end of the 19th century. Maria de Mariategui, widow of the Count of Medina Pomar and then of the 14th Earl of Caithness, owned a vast house at number 124 that she named Holyrood. Convinced of a spiritual bond with Mary Stuart, she had part of the Scottish palace reproduced and devoted a room to the queen. The richly furnished house included reception rooms, a library and an oratory.
President of a Parisian theosophical society, she received on Wednesdays Guaita, Papus, Oswald Wirth, Albert Jounet, Annie Besant, Jules Bois and Emma Calvé, Charles Richet, Camille Flammarion and Abbé Roca. It was in this setting, according to Churton, that Jules Doinel's Gnostic Church was consecrated in 1890; the duchess later became one of its dignitaries. The book describes, following Doinel, a séance in the oratory dedicated to Mary Stuart, lit by a scented lamp. All these names recur throughout the book.
Lady Caithness died in 1895, and her death deprived Papus's circle of valuable support. The mansion has since been demolished and replaced by a modern building. You can only walk past the address and imagine the séances held in honor of a Scottish queen beheaded three centuries earlier. Churton's book remains one of the liveliest sources on this salon. His descriptions draw on the accounts of Doinel and Michelet.
To be checked · Coordinates estimated from the street number. The exact date and circumstances of the founding of the Gnostic Church at Lady Caithness's rest on the accounts of Doinel and his circle.