Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Pontgirard Manor House, located in Longny les Villages in the Orne, has its origins around 1560 with the Féro family, forges operators in Boissy-Maugis. This estate then passes into the hands of the Chouet, wood merchants and iron producers, whose last representative, an officer of the King's house, shaped the mansion in its present form at the beginning of the seventeenth century. After his death and that of his widow in 1746, the mansion was sold to peasants and ceased to be inhabited regularly.

The architecture of the manor house combines a 16th-century house body remodeled at the end of the reign of Louis XIV, marked by the addition of a horse-drawn iron staircase. The commons include a barn dated 1614, with curved doors and old frame, as well as partially preserved enclosure walls. The entrance porch, reported from the Paris region, and the traces of the old terraces complete this set.

The manor house, which was partially listed as a historic monument, had its facades and roofs protected since 1972, followed in 1989 by the barn, the garden walls, and the garden terraces. These protections highlight the heritage value of a site linked to local industrial history (forges, timber trade) and Norman rural architecture.

The area also illustrates the social changes of the region: from an industrial and commercial property (Féron, Chouet), it became in the 18th century an agricultural property, reflecting the decline of percheron metallurgical activities and the evolution of land structures in Normandy.

Today, the Pontgirard manor house, although partially preserved, bears witness to this history through its architectural elements (stairs, barn, terraces) and its integration into the landscape of Monceaux-au-Perche, a commune delegated by Longny les Villages.

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