The Feugerets castle
SEVEN HUNDRED YEARS OF HISTORY
A 15th century fortified house
The first known lord is Jehan Fougerais born around 1340. His son Gervais, a law graduate, was a tax lawyer for Perche in 1396 then Bailiff of Dreux for the Duke of Orléans in 1402 while Guillaume,
Viscount of Perche in 1416, participated in the siege of Chartres with Charles VII in 1421.
A first defensive site was established with a dwelling or fortified house of which some traces of mullioned windows remain.
A 16th century manor house
Jean II des Feugerets "high and powerful lord of Feugerets and other places" wanted to mark his ascension in the noble order in stone. An invoice for the delivery of tiles dated 1560 allows us to situate the construction of the two pavilions controlling access to the sleeping bridge and completing the promotion of the manor into a real castle with machicolation decoration surrounded by deep moats. A large round tower completes the device.
A tower with a gunboat is still clearly visible.
The domain is then composed of eighttowers and a dungeon.
A castleu of pleasure from the 17th-18th centuries
centuries
Aimery des Feugerets, captain and governor of the town and castle of Bellême in 1682, master of the hunts whose portrait is kept in the castle, embellished the place by the creation of a vast esplanade bordered by high balustraded guardrails forming a terrace overlooking the lower courtyard and the construction of a remarkable horseshoe staircase providing access to the upper courtyard.
Captain of the Perche hunts from 1678, Aimery des Feugerets is said to have welcomed the great Dauphin, son of Louis XIV, to the castle on several occasions.
Portrait of the Grand Dauphin, son of Louis XIV and grandfather of Louis XV by Mignard
The interior was then redesigned, the central staircase disappearing in favor of a staircase in the large round tower. The single-mullioned windows were widened by large bays.
The rear facade is decorated with two elegant quarter-circle connecting bodies topped with imperial roofs covered with scale tiles.
Painting representing the Feugerets family around 1780: Emery des Feugerets, his wife Geneviève Madeleine Poullain de Brustel, their daughter Virginie and, in a medallion, their son Alexandre, wearing a military helmet, surmounted by a crest. Alexandre des Feugerets was educated at Royal Military College of Thiron of Thiron GardaisHe died there at the age of 10.
In the 18th century, the Counts and then Marquises of Feugerets added a wing of common areas between the west pavilion and the large tower. This building, topped with attics (disappeared in a fire) lit by wooden dormer windows with a capucine roof, housed the kitchens.
The French garden (visible on the terrier plan preserved in the gallery) disappeared in favor of an English garden with the construction of an orangery around 1830.
The Semallé family installed the current chapel (stained glass window dated 1855) in the keep (replacing the one built in 1501 by Jean Ier des Feugerets). The cartouche pediment with the Semallé coat of arms was moved at the end of the 19th century by the Viscount of Broc and reinstalled on the façade of the wing at right angles built in the middle of the century, while high neo-Renaissance dormers were added to the façade on the courtyard side.
The Romanet family inherited the castle and occupied it throughout the 20th century.
The Feugerets land will be a rare example of continuity in the lineage of its owners since it will have remained in the same family for almost seven centuries.
Bought in 2018 by the Fautrelle de Fondaumiere family, the castle has been refurnished, is open to the public and is currently being restored.