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Origin and history

Plain-Marais Castle is an ancient fortified house built between the 15th and 17th centuries, replacing a 14th century building. Located in the Cotentin, on a hill overlooking the marshes and the Dove at Beuzeville-la-Bastille (Manche), it was a strategic point to monitor marshes and navigation. Its dominant location, 26 metres above sea level, offered a view of Isle Marie Castle, 1.9 km away, with which it shared this defensive function.

Originally, the site housed a Roman camp controlling the way between Bayeux and Portbail. In the Middle Ages, a strong house surrounded by walls and dry ditches – filled with floods – took over. The square, integrated into the "coast defence plan" in 1374 under John of Vienna, was fiercely contested during the English occupation of the 15th century. The successive captains, such as Jean d'Arclais (1410) or Jean de Talbot (1429), made it a key bastion of the Varenguebec chestnut.

The family of Saint-Simon, owner of the 15th to 19th centuries, undertook important work at the end of the 16th century, as evidenced by their carved coat of arms. An act of 1493 attests to a marriage between Philippe Simon, seigneur of Plain-Marais, and Catherine de Houteville. In the 17th century, the castle was completely remodeled and bastioned "at the Vauban", with square structures at the angles allowing fire from the enfilade. The ditches, 10 meters wide, were preserved, while a fixed bridge replaced the drawbridge.

The main house, probably dating from the seventeenth century, rises on a floor and is flanked by two older polygonal towers. The chapel, which is still used by the present family, and the undergrounds – one of which leads to the Dove – recall its defensive past. During the Revolution, Marquise Andrée Louise Aimée de Thiboutot, wife of the owner Olivier Le Clerc de Juigné, escaped the Republicans. The castle also served as a command post for the 90th American Division in June-July 1944.

Today owned by the Aigneaux family, the castle preserves medieval elements (archeries, moats, vaulted cellars) and classical arrangements (bastinated garden with basins and statues). Partly listed as historical monuments (1975 and 1998), he visits by appointment from May to September. A legend evokes an underground link between Plain-Marais and Isle-Marie Castle, although it is unlikely.

Among the notable figures, Chateaubriand reportedly stayed at the castle around 1800 to write part of his Mémoires d'outre-tombe, during a visit to his niece, wife of the owner Alfred de Beaufort. The Romanesque, medieval and modern traces make this site a multi-sacular witness to Norman history, from Anglo-French conflicts to 20th century military occupations.

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