Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Manor House of Ciphertot, located in the commune of Moutiers-Hubert in Calvados, is an emblematic building in the country of Auge. Built mainly in the 16th century, its main body has a rectangular structure on two levels, characterized by wooden panels and a four-sided roof. An octagonal 17th century turret with murderers completes the whole, while a square stone dovecote, dated 1605, stands in the surrounding park. The site is crossed by the river Touques, near the church Saint-Martin.

During World War II, the mansion was requisitioned by Marshal Rommel during the Battle of Normandy in 1944. It was in this area that Rommel was wounded in an air attack, while his staff occupied a nearby house, a former hotel house linked to a paper factory that had disappeared in a fire in 1928. The mansion also belonged to Robert Halley, founder of the Promodès group and mayor of Moutiers-Hubert from 1978 to 2001.

Ranked a historic monument since 19 January 1927, the mansion illustrates Norman rural architecture, combining defensive (murder) and agricultural (colombier) elements. Its dovecote, typical of seigneurial houses, bears witness to the social status of its owners, while the octagonal turret evokes the historical tensions of the region. Rommel's requisition adds a memorial dimension linked to the Liberation of France.

The site is located about 500 metres southwest of the Church of Saint-Martin, in an environment marked by the industrial (paper factory) and agricultural history of the country of Auge. Today, there remains an architectural testimony of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a period of transition between the Middle Ages and the modern era in Normandy.

External links