Sold: Napoleon's brother Joseph Bonaparte's estate in New Jersey for $4.6 million.

Joseph Bonaparte left Europe and fled to the United States after the defeat of his brother Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The former exiled king of Spain settled in Bordentown, New Jersey and built a lavish estate called Point Breeze. The foundation of the estate was a palace fit for royalty, occupying practically 38,000 square feet over three floors. It included a library with 8,000 books and an art collection, including Spanish crown jewels. The grounds were also a delight with beautiful sculpted gardens, stables and an artificial lake. Joseph lived on the property for 23 years before returning to Europe, where he died in 1844.

Although the palace no longer exists, historians and local officials are now working to turn the 60-acre property into a public park to preserve Bordentown's ties to the Bonaparte family. D&R Land Conservation Organization

Bordentown, New Jersey, is the birthplace of one of Napoleon Bonaparte's brothers, Joseph Bonaparte, a former king of Spain and Naples who settled here in the early 19th century and built a lavish estate called Point Breeze in 1816. Although the huge estate no longer exists, city and state officials recently teamed up with preservationists to purchase the 60-acre parcel of land for $4.6 million and turn it into a public park in an effort to preserve Bordentown's ties to the Bonaparte family and the former king, Joseph.

"There's a real opportunity here to celebrate history and, at the same time, make it especially relevant to modern people who want to come and walk the trails, learn about the land and maybe even garden on the land," said Linda Mead, president of D&R Greenway, the land preservation organization that helped organize the sale of the site.

Joseph fled Europe after his brother Napoleon was defeated at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and settled in Bordentown, which was home to about 4,000 people at the time and still is. The former king, who was about 48 years old at the time, quickly set about building Point Breeze in a small town located between New York City and Philadelphia, about nine miles south of Trenton.

Joseph built a palace of about 38,000 square feet, perched on a hill on his 60-acre plot of land, to be on guard in case hostile forces approached. Under the ground was a network of tunnels in case Joseph had to run to the nearest creek. Joseph's time living on the estate lasted about 23 years before he finally left New Jersey in 1839 and returned to Europe.

Today, all that remains of Joseph's original architecture are old foundations, crumbling tunnels, a gardener's house and a brick bridge. Recently, the D&R organization

The parcel of land is intended to become the new center of Bordentown, which will house the district office and police station in buildings built by the previous owners of the land after Joseph. The remaining structure from Joseph's time, the gardener's house, will be turned into a museum telling the history of the land.

We hope the museum will help spread Joseph's story more widely, beyond the Bordentown residents who are familiar with it. Biographer Patricia Tyson Stroud described Joseph's experience in the United States in her 2005 book, The Man Who Was King: The American Exile of Napoleon's Brother Joseph. The book tells the story of how Joseph's first palace burned down in 1820. The cause of the fire is still unclear - some historians believe it was an accident, while others have suggested it was arson, done to destroy copies of Joseph's correspondence with Napoleon. After the fire, Joseph wrote a letter by which valuable items could be rescued from the trapped flames, and it was translated into French and published in the newspapers. After the fire, Joseph was building a second palace that was even more impressive. In 1832 he moved to London and visited Point Breeze regularly until finally leaving for Italy in 1839, where he died at the age of 76 in 1844. Joseph's second palace was destroyed after his death when British diplomat Henry Beckett bought the site in 1850 and replaced it with an Italian villa. But Joseph's legacy will remain on this property through the care and involvement of Tucci, Mead, the people of Bordentown and the state of New Jersey.