Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

Beaumanoir Castle, located in Évran in Côtes-d'Armor, replaces a first medieval building destroyed during the League's wars (1590). This primitive castle, built in the 12th century by the Beaumanoir family, was 150 metres from the present, on the heights overlooking the Rance valley. Its gradual disappearance, due to religious conflicts, led to the abandonment of the site at the end of the sixteenth century, making it uninhabitable.

The construction of the present castle began in 1628 under the impetus of François Peschart, ordinary gentleman of the King's Chamber and adviser to the parliament of Brittany. Although sometimes attributed to Salomon de Brosse or Thomas Poussin, recent research focuses on the work of the Lavallois architect Jacques Corbineau and his son Étienne. The second Renaissance style building is organized around a rectangular courtyard of honor, with a five-span housing body and two perpendicular wings.

The monumental portal, inspired by the Italian Renaissance, is decorated with pilasters with bosses, a curved pediment and coat of arms of the Langle-Beaumanoir family. The two square towers, flanking the round path, rest on cariatides partially hammered in the 19th century. The octagonal chapel, located in the eastern tower, preserves an altar and a 17th century retable, typical of the Louis XIII style, as well as a family crypt used until 1963.

Ranked a historic monument in 1965 for its facades and roofs, the castle underwent major transformations in the 19th century, such as the suppression of skylights and the simplification of roofs. Acquired in 1963 by the Côtes-d'Armor department, it was restored to accommodate an educational institute and then a psychiatric hospital until 1998. Today it is privately owned and bears witness to the architectural and social evolution of Brittany over four centuries.

The history of the castle is marked by uncertainties, including the exact location of the first building and the attribution of its design. The hypotheses evoke a site near the Clos du Petit Bois or the Roche, near the Rance. The League's wars (1589-1598) had a profound impact on the region, destroying many feudal castles, including the Beaumanoir castle, before its reconstruction in the 17th century.

Successive transformations, such as those of 1836 by Renée Lefranc-David and Louis Marie de Langle-Beaumanoir, altered his original appearance. After 1947, the castle, emptied of its furniture, served as a holiday colony and then as an agricultural building. Its restoration in the 20th century, led by architects Jean Voizard and Jean Sonnier, allows its preservation despite a state of disrepair advanced in 1963.

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