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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The castle of Mariéville, located 300 metres west of the church of Saint-Brice de Beuzeville-au-Plain (now integrated with Sainte-Mère-Église), is an ancient fortified house dating back to the late 15th or early 16th century. Built on cellar, it consists of two housing bodies in square, flanked by four towers of angle pierced from arquebusières, typical of the defensive architecture of the period. The windows, added in the 18th century, modernize the facade, while an octagonal chimney known as "English" dominates multi-slope roofs. The coat of arms of the Saint-Simon-Courtemer family, visible above the entrance door, recall their seigneurial on Sainte-Mère-Église.

Acquired in 1510 by Jean Simon († before 1528), squire and seigneur of Beuzeville-au-Plain, the castle remained in its progeny until the Revolution. In 1769, Adélaïde-Olympe de Saint-Simon-Coutomer (1748–?), heir to the estate, married Léon-Marguerite Le Clerc, Baron de Juigné (1733–10), the last noble owner before the sale as national property. Confiscated in 1799, the castle was awarded to two merchants, Guillaume David (Caen) and François Le Masson (Saint-Lô), who shared it until 1804. In 1825 Charlotte-Louise Le Clerc de Juigné, daughter of the predecessors, bought some of the premises before selling them in 1846.

The facades and roofs of the castle (excluding the building adjacent to the east), as well as those of the communes — once pierced by "gun holes" — have been listed as historical monuments since 25 August 2005. The site illustrates the architectural evolution of a Norman seigneury, marked by the defensive and residential transformations between the Middle Ages and the modern era. Divided between two owners after the Revolution, the main house now retains the traces of this historical fragmentation.

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