Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The domain of Pignerolle, located in Saint-Barthélemy-d'Anjou en Maine-et-Loire, belongs from 1509 to Louis Migo, then passed in 1649 to François Éveilard, mayor of Angers. His daughter Renée Avril, through her marriage in 1655, passed the estate on to the Avril family, who kept it until the Revolution. The Aprils of Pignerolle, renowned master of rides, lead the Royal Riding Academy of Angers until its closure in 1792.

During the Revolution, Marcel Avril, the last director of the academy, was imprisoned and died in 1793. The estate, confiscated, was sold in 1824 to Pierre-Antoine Blancler, an angelvin merchant. The latter restores the castle in the First Empire style, expands the park to 264 hectares and adds orangery and entrance pavilions. When he died in 1863, the estate passed to the Marquis de Perrochel and was sold in 1901 to Baron Hamelin.

In the 20th century, Pignerolle played a key role during the Second World War: he first housed the Polish government in exile (1939-1940), then became a communication centre of the German Kriegsmarine (1943-1944), with the construction of 11 bunkers. After the war, barracks served as an emergency city until 1964. Ranked a historic monument in 1961, the castle is restored and hosts the European Museum of Communication from 1992 to 2015.

The neo-classical architecture of the castle, work by Michel Bardoul de la Bigotière, inspired by the Petit Trianon, with ionic columns and allegorical bas-reliefs. The park, combining French and English garden, includes a monumental orangery and a semicircular garden factory. Today, the estate belongs to Angers Loire Métropole and opens its gardens to the public, while preserving bunkers as historical testimonies.

The April of Pignerolle, family of ecuyers, mark the history of the place by their expertise in riding and their management of the Academy of Angers. Their decline during the Revolution contrasted with the industrial boom of the 19th century under the Blancler, then the vicissitudes of the 20th century, between military occupations and cultural conversion. The castle, symbol of this turbulent past, remains a place of memory and an angeline heritage.

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