Upper Brookville's chateau on market for $4.995 million

As the story goes, in 1927 financier Ashbel Barney was so taken with a 17th century chateau in the French village of Les Petits Thons that he paid a princely sum to have a wing of the castle dismantled, shipped to the United States and reassembled on Long Island.

Today, the Chateau des Thons in Upper Brookvile sits atop 6.7 wooded acres on Wolver Hollow Road, and is for sale for $4.995 million. It is listed with Linda Brown of Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty. It has been on the market since 2006, when it listed at $6.995 million.

The home in Upper Brookville retains the grandeur of the original chateau in France, which has links to the family of the writer Voltaire. The seven-bedroom, 6-1/2 bath, 6,800-square-foot manse has formal and walled gardens, leafy oak groves, classical fountains and ivy-covered turrets. The front garden was designed by Umberto Innocenti, who worked on the gardens of the Chelsea Mansion in what is now the Muttontown Preserve and whose clients included people like Marjorie Merriweather Post and Evelyn Marshall Field.

The master bedroom has an 18-foot-high mirrored fireplace. The 1,000-square-foot grand salon has floor-to-ceiling paneling, and a there's a 40-foot-high sweeping staircase dating from more than 330 years ago.

The modernized kitchen is capable of serving 300 guests. There's also a heated, 1,000-square-foot pool on the property.

Brown says that the estate represents, "an exquisite marriage of vintage materials, historic details...and premium contemporary amenities," adding that the home has been used by many upscale companies, such as Ralph Lauren, as a location for advertising photo shoots.