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Key figures

Origin and history

The mansion of the Hautière, located on Rue Claude-Guillon-Verne in Nantes, is a seigneurial building built in the late 14th century. Its facades in granite, shale and tuffeau, as well as its 15th century skylights, bear witness to its late medieval architecture. The building, consisting of three adjoining houses, includes a hexagonal tower and a rotating staircase leading to an apartment with a monumental fireplace. Part of the mansion would have housed an alchemy workshop, adding to its historical mystery.

The mansion welcomed royal personalities, including Henri IV and Gabrielle d'Estrée in 1594 when the Édit de Nantes was signed, as well as Louis XIV in 1661 for the states of Brittany. Successive property of noble families such as the Boislève, Ragau, or Carré de Lusançay, it was confiscated during the Revolution and transformed into a prison, where the Admiral du Chaffaut died in 1794. Recaptured by Lusançay's heirs under the Empire, he changed hands several times in the 19th century, becoming even a refuge during world wars.

In 1906, the commune of Chantenay-sur-Loire (annexed to Nantes in 1908) acquired the mansion to install municipal services. After decades of post-Second World War abandonment, the Companion Union rehabilitated it in 1968 to become a museum of traditional crafts and tools. In 1926, it remained a major architectural and historical testimony of Nantes, combining seigneurial heritage, national events and artisanal memory.

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