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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Mesnil mansion is a Renaissance residence built in the 4th quarter of the 16th century on the town of Roiville, in the department of Orne (Normandy). It is distinguished by its innovative architecture for the period: a body of rectangular houses framed by two drop-down pavilions, breaks with the medieval quadrangular plan. Its half-timbered facades, heavy roofs and carved skylights, framed with canned pilasters, illustrate the influence of the Renaissance, while symmetry and verticality herald classicism.

The mansion was erected by the Gouhier family, notably by Christophe Gouhier, squire, who acquired the land before 1489. The building consists of a central body and two former pavilions, completed later by a ramp-on-rail staircase in the early seventeenth century, probably replacing a screw staircase. The stairway tower, made of cut stone and covered with slate, retains murderers. The estate, called the Pavillon on the map of Cassini, underwent important restorations in the late 19th century and since 1956, with the addition of a French garden in the 20th century. The site is classified in 1944, and the manor house is listed as historical monuments by order of 18 December 1981.

Architecturally, the mansion combines traditional materials (woodpan, flat tiles) and cutting stone elements for side walls and chimneys. The dependency, also in half-timbered, completes the whole. Its aesthetic bias, marked by the absence of oblique wood pieces, reflects a transition to more classic cannons. The mansion thus embodies a pivotal period between the Middle Ages and the modern era, both by its structure and its ornaments.

Located 1 km northwest of Roiville and 900 m east of Fresnay-le-Samson, in the Life Valley, the mansion is part of a Normandy countryside. Its inscription in historical monuments underlines its heritage importance, while successive restorations have preserved its original characteristics, while adapting to contemporary uses (visits, events).

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