Origin and history
The Fossés mansion, located in Plelan-le-Petit in the Côtes-d'Armor, is a 14th century building (although the period mentioned is the 4th quarter of the 16th century for later elements). This fortified house-door, "room" type, stands out for its remarkable conservation and defensive architecture. The eastern façade, facing outwards, features five cruciform murderers (three of whom are on the ground floor) and a cochère door in the middle of the hangar, while the western façade, opening onto the courtyard, retains a large walled door and a Gothic window. The upper floor, accessible by an elevated (defensive) door, houses a unique room with a missing fireplace and an intact Gothic structure, composed of four polygonal and roll-in farms, unique in Brittany for a civil building.
The mansion is part of a larger manorial complex, now partially extinct. A description of 1497 evokes a courtyard surrounded by buildings (lower room, bedroom, kitchen, chapel) and wooden palisades, suggesting that the current house was only one element. In the 16th century, a new main house was built 50 meters northwest, with a hexagonal staircase tower still visible. Other additions (longer 17th century, renovated supply) reflect a continuous occupation until the 19th century, a period of many changes. The site, close to a Roman road (Corseul-Vannes) and neolithic remains, also reveals schistose moats before the manor, dug for its protection.
Successive property of the families Le Borgne (XIVth century), De La Bouexière (XIVth century), DesNos/Le Dean (XVIIth-XVIIIth century) and De Kergorlay (from 1710), the mansion was associated with a right of high justice over neighbouring communes. Ranked a Historic Monument in 1992, it illustrates the evolution of Breton seigneurial habitats from a defensive function to an agricultural role after the Middle Ages. Its partial abandonment has preserved rare elements, such as its frame or defence systems (swivel flaps, elevated access).
The building, built on a shale outcrop near the Montafilan valley, had a strategic location: dry sitting, near living water and meadows for seigneurial needs. Excavations revealed circular ditches (3 m wide, 2 m deep) prior to the 14th century, possibly linked to primitive occupation. A few hundred meters away, a neolithic site (polished stone tools, microliths) attests to an ancient occupation of the territory.
Architecturally, the mansion combines military elements (murder, moored pedestrian door) and residential elements (trifoliated geminous bays, large room of appartment to stage). The upper room, prioritized by an elevated level near the fireplace, served as a reception place. Its access via a mobile staircase (disappeared) reinforces its defensive character, close to a dungeon. The windows, without glazed windows, were protected by a double flap system (inside and outside), similar to ship slugs.
Today, the Fossés mansion, visible from the D19 at the exit of Plelan-le-Petit, is an exceptional testimony of medieval Breton civil architecture. Its inscription in the Historical Monuments in 1992 underscores its heritage value, despite subsequent renovations (XIXth century) and the disappearance of certain elements (chapel, panel of the frame). The site, still partially empty, preserves an authentic atmosphere, between seigneurial vestige and memory of prehistoric and Gallo-Roman occupations.
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