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Origin and history

Hermitage Castle, also known as hermitage des Jésuites, is a French mansion located in Coulanges-lès-Nevers, near Nevers. Built in the seventeenth century and rebuilt and expanded in 1752, it served as a recreation home for Jesuits at the Collège de Nevers after its acquisition in 1621. The estate, with an area of four hectares, consists of a rectangular master house, adjoining pavilions and a park with multi-sacular oak trees.

The site, crossed by an ancient Roman route from Nevers to Autun, reveals a human occupation from the early Middle Ages. Recent archaeological excavations, linked to the Clos de l'Ermitage real estate project (2019), have confirmed this early urbanization. The Jesuits, expelled in 1762 for refusing to pay the size, left room for a private property whose facades, roofs and grids were protected by a decree of 27 May 1991.

The architecture of the mansion, typical of the eighteenth century, combines a main body with a mansard roof and four pavilions. Two of them, along with the entrance gate, are registered with the main building. The park, in the north, is home to remarkable trees over 400 years old, witness to the period of landscape development. Today, the ensemble remains a preserved example of Jesuit heritage in Burgundy-Franche-Comté.

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