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Origin and history

Sarceau Manor House, located in Sarce in Sarthe, is a building whose oldest parts date back to the 12th century (notably the old kitchen, probable vestige of the dungeon), while most of the structure dates back to the 15th and 16th centuries. It belonged to the family of the poet Pierre de Ronsard, who inherited it before disposing of it. The departmental archives, studied by Mrs. Thérèse Fouquet from 1983 onwards, attest that the estate was an extended fief since the 11th century. Transformed into a farm, the manor house was in ruins when it was bought in 1983 by Mrs Fouquet, who undertook with her children a major restoration, leading to his registration in the Supplementary Inventory of Historic Monuments in 1989.

The manor consists of a house body mixing medieval and Renaissance elements, including a vaulted dining room, rooms served by a hexagonal screw staircase, and troglodyte cellars dug in the cliff. A garden replaced adjacent agricultural fields after 1980. The property, about 7 hectares, was planted with trees after the farm stopped. Several restoration campaigns followed, notably under the leadership of Ms Fouquet (1983–2007) and Mr Ronan Bourges (from 2007), before being taken over by the current owner.

The site also includes a long farm body (housing, stable, stable) and outbuildings. After serving as a residence for the Fouquet family, whose painter François Fouquet Dubois in the 2000s, the manor house is undergoing extensive restoration. Its history reflects the transformation of a seigneurial estate into a farm and then a preserved heritage, illustrating the challenges of conserving old buildings in rural areas.

Registration for the Historic Monuments in 1989 marked a turning point in its preservation, recognizing its architectural value and its link to local history, including the Ronsard family. The work undertaken since the 1980s has saved a representative set of the evolution of the Sarthois manors from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, while integrating troglodytic and landscape elements unique to the region.

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