Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château du Tertre is a Louis XIII style belge built in the first half of the 17th century at the request of Gilles Bry de La Clergerie, President of the Paris Parliament. Located mainly in the former commune of Sérigny (now Belforest-en-Perche, Orne), it was enlarged under the Empire by Count André-Joseph Abrial. Its park, built in the 17th century and transformed into an English garden in 1800, reflects various Masonic and landscape influences.

The Nobel-winning writer Roger Martin du Gard discovered the castle in 1906 via his future wife, Hélène Foucault. He lived there from 1925 to 1940, receiving literary figures like André Gide or Albert Camus. The site inspired his unfinished novel The Lieutenant-Colonel of Maumort. The property, labeled "Maisons des illustries" in 2014, preserves its library and work office intact.

The 9-hectare park, classified as a remarkable garden, mixes flooring, wooded massifs and picturesque factories such as the Poet's Table (1984) or the statue of Diane Chasse. Hydraulic installations, including a 19th century ram, still feed the estate. The facades and roofs of the castle, as well as several elements of the park, have been protected since 1979 and 1997.

The association Les Amis du Tertre, founded in 1996, continues the cultural vocation of the site, open to visitors by appointment. The castle embodies both the architectural heritage of the Perche and the literary memory of Martin du Gard, whose work remains linked to this inspirational place.

Contemporary sculpture Marc Vellay's (2010) woman walking on the water dialogues with historical elements such as the Ancient Flora or the Philosopher's Cave, illustrating the superposition of eras. The greenhouses, cisterns and vegetable gardens remind us of the agricultural functions and pleasure of the estate.

Ranked at historical monuments for its facades, its commons (orangerie, stables) and its park, the Tertre combines built heritage and landscape. Its history reflects the social transformations, from the parliamentary nobility of the seventeenth century to the intellectual circles of the twentieth century, to the Masonic footprint of the nineteenth.

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