Origin and history
The Château de Nacqueville, also known as the Château de Fourneville, is a house dating from the 15th to the 16th centuries, which was completely renovated in the 19th century. It stands in the Nord-Cotentin, on the former commune of Urville-Nacqueville (now integrated with La Hague, Manche), on the border of Querqueville. The estate, partially inscribed with historical monuments, combines a Renaissance home, a medieval portery with a drawbridge, and a 19th century landscape park designed for Hippolyte de Tocqueville, brother of writer Alexis de Tocqueville. Its history reflects architectural transformations and political upheavals, from feudality to revolution, to military occupations during wars.
The seigneury of Nacqueville was created by the merger of two neighboring fiefs, Fourneville and Les Marets (Marais), united by alliances or buybacks in the 16th century. In the 13th century, the Carbonnels owned the Marets, before the fief passed in 1505 to Pierre de Saint-Gilles. At the same time, Jean de Grimouville, seigneur of Fourneville as early as 1501, began the construction of the current mansion. In 1525, his son John VI married Renée de Saint-Gilles, uniting the two seigneuries. The Grimouville family completed the castle towards the end of the 16th century, before Bernard Mangon des Marest modernized the house in 1689, removing the defensive enclosure except the gate.
The castle plays a role during major conflicts. In 1758, during the Seven Years' War, the English occupied it after its landing in the Urvilleanse with 12,000 men, marking their last offensive in Normandy (an inscription on the façade bears witness to this: "The English on dessendu le 7 d'aust ano 1758). During the Revolution, Jean-Baptiste Barbout de Querqueville hid royalists there before dying there after his arrest. In the 19th century, Hippolyte de Tocqueville, heir by marriage, restored the castle and created the park in 1830, with ponds, waterfalls and exotic plants. During the Second World War, the estate was alternately occupied by the Germans, then by an American staff, and in 1945 hosted a camp of 60,000 prisoners, of which 632 benefited from the Tournesol Project, an educational programme in tents.
The architecture of the castle blends medieval elements (round towered door, moat) and Renaissance elements (shadow lodges, carved chimneys). The 35-hectare park, classified as a natural site in 1969, is home to rare species such as palm trees and Gunneras, crossed by Castelets Creek. Hydraulic installations (fontaines, ponds) date from the 19th century. Today, only the poterne and park are accessible to the public, while the entrance hall opens exceptionally during Heritage Days, under the auspices of the current owner, Florence d'Harcourt, great-great-great-granddaughter of Hildevert Hersent, who acquired the estate in 1877.
The domain of Nacqueville illustrates the historical strata of Normandy, from medieval lords (Carbonnel, Grimouville) to noble families of the 18th–18th century (Tocqueville, Hersent). Its successive protections (inscriptions in 1944 and 1992) highlight its heritage value, both architectural, landscape and memorial. The site also served as a cinematic setting, as for La Dame de Monsoreau (1922), shot by Norman director René Le Somptier.
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