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Origin and history

The château de l'Herbaudière, located in Salles-sur-Mer in Charente-Maritime, is a former seigneury under the former Régime of Châtelaillon Castle. Although not mentioned in the census of the fiefs of Aunis (1539-1540), it appeared in 1560 as property of Pierre Salbert, a bishop of La Rochelle, who acquired it from François Pajault. This family of nobility, Protestant, quickly passed it on to the Blandin by the marriage of Elizabeth Salbert with René Blandin, close to Henri de Navarre (future Henri IV). René Blandin, although from a Huguenot family, refused to join the Reformed Praxed Religion, as he explained in a 1609 letter.

The seigneury remained in the Blandin progeny until 1680, when Henriette Blandin, granddaughter of Pierre Blandin, brought in dowry to her husband, Louis-Joseph Green de Saint-Marsault, seigneur of Nieul. In 1724, the castle was given to Jean-Pharamond de Sainte-Hermine, Abbé de Notre-Dame-d'Angle and nephew of the Marquise de Maintenon, before returning to the Greens de Saint-Marsault in 1730. The latter, including Henri-Charles-Benjamin Green de Saint-Marsault (1739-1819), captain of infantry and Sénéchal de La Rochelle, expanded the estate in the 18th century by marriage alliances, notably with Françoise-Suzanne-Geneviève Green de Saint-Marsault in 1767.

Architecturally, this 16th-century gentilhommière, rebuilt in the 18th century (drills, enlargements), consists of a main body flanked by a tower to the south and two north pavilions surrounding an old courtyard. Inside, a wooded living room was restored in the early 20th century in the 17th century style. The castle, which remained in the Green family of Saint-Marsault until the 20th century through the marriage of Andrée Green of Saint-Marsault with André Guimbeau in 1924, was partially classified as a Historical Monument in 1973 (facades and roofs).

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