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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

Tournebu Castle, built in the 12th century by the first Barons of Tournebu, was an actor in the French-English struggles of the 14th and 15th centuries. Passed by inheritance to the family of Thère in 1452, he changed hands several times before being redeemed in 1701 by Pierre de Tournebu, lord of Livet. The line continued to retain the estate until 2012, after a key legacy in 1806 by Marie-Pierre de Tournebu at his petit-neveeu, Jean Jacques Luc Edmond de Foucault.

The 21-metre-high cylindrical dungeon, dated from the 12th century, was remodeled in the 16th-17th centuries: a roof-roofed, integrated into a bastion star fort, and equipped with underground. Its architectural peculiarities include taskron marks (geometrical signs or letters) on the facade, and an interior redone in the 15th and 17th centuries. Partly destroyed after the Revolution to serve as a career, he now preserves only his large work, Louis XIII chimneys, and latrines.

Ranked a historic monument in 1927, the site still belongs to descendants of the family of Tournebu. Although private property not open to the public, its remains – including a well and a cellar that weakened the structure – testify to a unique defensive evolution in Normandy, mixing medieval motte and bastioned adaptations of the modern era. The studies of Arcisse de Caumont (1849) and Michel Fixot (1968) highlighted its archaeological importance.

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