Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The seigneurial house of the Escuray, located in Prinquiau in the Loire-Atlantique, finds its origins at the end of the 14th century, around 1390, in the form of a medieval Breton mansion. A dendrochronological study conducted in 2018 by the company Dendrotech confirmed that the beams of its frame came from trees felled between 1385 and 1398, used "green" shortly after. This mansion, probably preceded by a feudal motte dating from the Viking invasions (IXth-Xth century), was a high strategic place in Brittany. His first certified owner, Jean du Cellier, Seneschal de Nantes and Rennes in the 15th century, made him a symbol of seigneurial power.

At the beginning of the 17th century, the mansion was profoundly transformed by René de la Lande and his wife Françoise de Mareil, married in 1598. They enlarged the main body by adding a symmetrical right wing to the existing, creating a U-shaped plane around an octagonal tower topped by a dovecote. Four Breton Renaissance-style windows, typical of the period, then decorated the northern facade. However, the premature death of the couple (1608 and 1613) plunged their heirs into financial difficulties, leading to the sale of the estate in 1667 to Jean de la Bourdonnaye, lord of Bratz.

The castle experienced a troubled period during the Revolution. In 1793, during the Battle of Savenay (Virée de Galerne), Republican troops, seeking the Marquise de La Rochejacquelein, refugees one night at the Escuray, vandalized the house and destroyed its dovecote. The then owner, Denis-Jean Espivent de la Villeguevraye, a royalist employed in the Condé army, was imprisoned, while his family was also subjected to repression. His nephew, François Espivent de Perran, an anti-English sailor and privateer, inherited the site in 1808 after years of captivity in England. The Espivent family, marked by its royalist commitment, marked Prinquiau for more than a century, until the expansion of the estate by Yvonne Espivent in 1916.

In the 19th century, Denis Espivent de Perran (1823-1891), mayor of Prinquiau for 50 years, partially rebuilt the castle and devoted himself to its commune: a renowned botanist, he cared for the inhabitants free of charge and financed the education of poor children. His heir, Yvonne, will gradually sell the land before Count Raymond de Maistre, the last resident, dies in 1993. Repurchased by the town hall in 1994, the house has since been restored by the association ARPE, created in 2009, which organizes cultural events and collects funds for its preservation.

Ranked a historic monument in 1997, the Escuray now includes the medieval and Renaissance home, the remains of a probable feudal motte, and a closed garden. Its 25-hectare park, open to the public, bears witness to its seigneurial past and the historical upheavals of Brittany, from the wars of Religion to the Revolution. The tufted skylights, the octagonal tower, and the departmental archives (funds 186 J) make it a key site for understanding architecture and Breton society between the Middle Ages and modern times.

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