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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Hotel de la Sénéchaître, located in Fontenay-le-Comte in Vendée, is a private hotel built between 1590 and 1595 for Jacques Gobin, former size receiver, and his wife Jacquette Fourestier. Built after the destruction of their previous home during the siege of 1574, the building combines stone facades and stone walls, with roofs initially covered with tiles, later replaced by l'ardoise. The central tower, known as the "Mélusine tower", takes its name from an engraving depicting the fairy, adorning a window on the second floor.

Originally conceived as a private residence, the hotel was seized in 1679 and converted into a temporary hospital and then into a prison during the Revolution. In the 19th century, it served as a military warehouse before a chimney decorated with claws was transferred to the castle of Newfoundland by Octave de Rochebrune. In 1980, the city of Fontenay-le-Comte acquired the building to install the Treasury after a major restoration, including archaeological excavations in 1997. Ranked a historic monument in 1988, it preserves medieval remains, like a tower of the old urban enclosure.

The history of the hotel is marked by illustrious owners, including the gourmet of La Rochefoucauld (1621–27), including the son François de La Rochefoucauld, author of the Maximes, spent his childhood there. Although dubbed "senechallenged" with reference to its alleged judicial use, the archives reveal that it was a private dwelling, linked to the Guinefolle fief under the Ancien Régime. Its successive transformations — hospital, prison, administrative building — reflect the political and social upheavals of the region, from Renaissance to contemporary times.

Architecturally, the hotel is distinguished by its two facades on courtyard and its stone staircase towers, contrasting with the parts in stone. Changes in blankets (toiles and slates) and the disappearance of commons in the 20th century reflect its evolution. Today it is a communal property and houses public services while preserving heritage elements, such as vaulted cellars and the Melusine tower, symbol of Poitevin legends.

The sources also mention aborted projects, such as his conversion into a sub-prefecture in 1834 by the architect Jean-Firmin Levêque, or his role as a post-revolutionaryhospice. The 1997 excavations provided a better understanding of its original spatial organization, while its inscription in historical monuments in 1988 devotes its heritage value, between judicial history, Renaissance architecture and local memory.

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