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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Logis de la Baronnie is a mansion built between 1712 and 1721 in Saint-Martin-de-Ré, on the island of Ré, Charente-Maritime. Commanded by Jean Masseau, Sieur de Beauséjour and seigneur de la baronnie de l'île, he replaced a primitive mansion. The building reflects the prestige of its sponsor, with a neat architecture: bossed frames, ground pilasters, and a spatial organization typical of the mansions of the time, including a courtyard, wings in return, and a closed garden.

In 1785, the house was acquired by the king before being sold as a national good in 1791, in the context of revolutionary upheavals. In the 19th century, between 1845 and 1854, the building houses a boarding school run by the Sainte-Marie community of Providence of Saintes. The nuns set up a room there in an oratory, but left the place for lack of students. The interior preserves original elements, such as 18th-century panelling and a wrought iron ramp staircase.

Ranked a historic monument by decree of 26 December 1996, the Logis de la Baronnie today protects its house body, its wings, its courtyard, its garden with well, and its fence walls. Private property, it bears witness to the social and architectural history of the island of Ré, marked by its status as a barony under the Ancien Régime and its role in religious education in the 19th century. The facades, with their pilasters decorated with volutes and their condemned portal, recall the successive transformations of the site.

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