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Origin and history

Mirville Castle, located in the municipality of Mirville in the Seine-Maritime, is a building dating back to the 16th century, with major changes in the 19th century. The main house, built in alternating black flint, brick and limestone, bears witness to various architectural techniques. Nearby is a truncated 11th century motte, vestige of a primitive fortification, excavated between 1979 and 1981. These excavations revealed eight levels of wooden constructions, suggesting continuous occupation since the Middle Ages, as well as traces of a rectangular wooden building, probably the residence of the first lords of Mirville.

Mirville's fief, attested by Tancarville in 1080, was mentioned in medieval charters as Milleville. In 1105, Adam de Mirville, involved in the conflicts between Henri Beauclerc and Robert Courteheuse, would have strengthened the defences of the site, of which today the motte remains. In the 12th century, the fief already included a pond and a seigneurial mill on the Bolbec River. The present manor house, built in the 16th century for the family Le Goupil du Mesnil d In the 17th century, the Castral chapel became the parish church, while in the 18th century, a vegetable garden and agricultural buildings were added.

In the 19th century, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the modern Olympic Games, lived at the castle during his childhood and made significant changes. The site also retains industrial traces, like two brick kilns built in the 16th century for the construction of the mansion. The outbuildings, including brick stables and log house, illustrate the evolution of the estate's uses, between seigneurial residence, farm and historical memory.

The feudal motte, classified among historical monuments, and the associated archaeological remains (blackish layer, earth posts) offer a unique light on Norman seigneurial organization between the 11th and 12th centuries. The castle, partially protected since 1975 (façades, roofs, staircase to balusters), remains a major architectural and historical testimony of Normandy, linked to figures such as the family of Milleville or Pierre de Coubertin.

The Mirville viaduct (1844) and the Saint-Quentin church complete the local heritage, while the rural and agricultural municipality is part of the attraction area of Le Havre. The site, now privately owned, retains an intimate and emblematic dimension, between medieval memory and Olympic heritage.

Archaeological excavations confirmed the strategic importance of the fief, located on an axis between Bolbec and Nointot, and its role in Norman seigneurial dynamics. The archival documents, such as the charters of Henry II or the maps of Cassini, highlight the sustainability of this place, from the medieval period to the Industrial Revolution, to the agricultural transformations of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

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