Wall paintings Vers 1500 (≈ 1500)
Making frescoes in the tower
Fin XVe – début XVIe siècle
Initial construction
Initial construction Fin XVe – début XVIe siècle (≈ 1625)
Editing by the Mauveise family
XVIIIe siècle
Major transformations
Major transformations XVIIIe siècle (≈ 1850)
Expansions and new buildings
1992
Registration MH
Registration MH 1992 (≈ 1992)
Protection of houses and pigeons
1994
MH classification
MH classification 1994 (≈ 1994)
Protection of the tower and paintings
Aujourd'hui
Aujourd'hui
Aujourd'hui Aujourd'hui (≈ 2025)
Position de référence.
Heritage classified
Housing bodies, except classified parts; dovecoier (cad. A 226): registration by order of 21 October 1992; South-east corner tower of the fort house with its murals (Box A 226): by order of 2 September 1994
Key figures
Famille de Mauvise - Lords of Villiers
Suspected construction sponsors
Origin and history
Villiers House, located in Mauvières in the Centre-Val de Loire region, is a building built between the end of the 15th century and the first half of the 16th century. It consists of a house body flanked by two towers (a stair tower and a corner tower), a square dovecote with a roof in the pavilion, a pantry, a laundry room, a stable and barns. The corner tower, round outside and hexagonal inside, houses murals dated around 1500, illustrating six tragic scenes related to death, reflecting the Christian anxieties of the late Middle Ages. The openings, with chamfreined or ground frames, and the cladding lintels (including one decorated with an illegible shield) highlight the architectural style of the transition between Gothic and Renaissance.
The construction of the fortress is attributed to the family of Mauveise, seigneury of Villiers from the 15th century until the Revolution. The site was developed in the 18th century, including the expansion of the openings and the addition of a small housing building and a sheepfold. The more recent barns date back to the late 19th or early 20th century. Restorations were also carried out in the 19th and 20th centuries. The cadastre of 1833 reveals a spatial organization with courses surrounding the house, suggesting a main entrance to the east, now partially modified. The monument, partially protected (classification of the corner tower and its paintings in 1994, inscription of the house and dovecote in 1992) illustrates the evolution of a rural seigneury over centuries.
The wall paintings of the corner tower, an iconographic programme centered on mortality, are part of the context of medieval memento mori, reminders of human fragility in the face of the end times. These frescoes, exceptional by their state of conservation and their theme, bear witness to the beliefs and artistic practices of the local nobility at the dawn of the Renaissance. Defensive elements, such as the ramps and murderous steps of the stairway tower, recall the original function of protecting the site, although its role evolved towards a seigneurial residence and then agricultural. Subsequent transformations (XVIII–XX century) reflect the adaptation of the domain to the economic and social needs of each era.
