Le logis de Feusse

Description

The history of the Château de Feusse dates back to the early 17th century, when a wealthy Protestant merchant, Jean Jousselin, decided to purchase the fief of Feusse (or estate). Beginning in 1612, he oversaw the reconstruction of the main residence before passing away the following year. The estate and its château were then passed down to his heirs, from generation to generation.



In 1688, Marie Jousselin and her husband Jean Bernon inherited the Château de Feusse and played a decisive role in its history by deciding to expand it. The main residence was extended northward, terraces and gardens were landscaped, and a remarkable gate was built, providing access to the main courtyard. The entire main residence forms an enclosed courtyard—a common feature in Saintonge—designed to ensure security. Marie Jousselin married Jean Bernon, a pastor in Saint Just, shortly before the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1635. Although authorized to leave France, he did not do so; instead, he recanted and remained. To prove the authenticity of his conversion, he had a small chapel built at the far end of the garden, which was then consecrated with the permission of the Bishop of Saintes on July 29, 1710, very shortly before his death. A widower with no children from his first marriage, he had remarried Esther Gabiou, who in turn remarried in 1711 to Étienne Chassériaud, a bourgeois to whom she brought the seigneuries of Feusse and Fief-Levraud. Following a division of assets in 1746 among

Marguerite Chassériaud, widow of Charles-Louis Fromaget, a clerk in the Navy at Rochefort; Marie Chassériaud, wife of Jacques-Michel Bréard,

principal clerk of the Navy in Rochefort, and Eustache Chassériaud, the La Feusse estate went to the latter. Eustache Chassériaud died on January 19, 1789, without issue. He left as heirs his sister, Marie Chassériaud, widow of Jacques-Michel Bréard, former Navy Commissioner and later Treasurer of France at the Finance Office of Guyenne, represented by her eldest son, Jean-Jacques Bréard, squire, Lord of Les Portes, and his nephew, Louis Grenier de La Sausaye, knight, a former officer in the Dragoons, and Jean-Pierre Bernard, a former naval lieutenant and husband of Marie Fromaget.



They put the estate up for sale and found a buyer in 1791 in the person of Pierre Garesché, a landowner in Marennes, who offered them

45,000 livres. One enters the courtyard of the main house through a monumental carriage entrance with Doric pilasters and a broken pediment. The residence, at the far end of the

courtyard, is a simple two-story house featuring a polygonal stair tower with a semicircular doorway framed by pilasters, forming the original core of the building. The large double-leaf French door, leading to the vestibule, with a molded doorframe and surmounted by a broken arched pediment, belongs to a second phase of construction that

can be dated to the very end of the 17th century or the very beginning of the 18th century. On the garden side, the dwelling was extended in depth, but only on the ground floor. A few stone balusters bear witness to a garden layout that appears to date from the same period as the large vestibule door. At the far end of the garden, in a corner of the surrounding wall, stands the small chapel

built for Jean Bernon and consecrated in 1710. (1)



The structure is neatly crafted yet modest, built of rubble stone; it features a band of molded cut stone. A few balusters from the garden’s original layout still remain.



The doors leading to the hall and the tower have heavily molded frames and pediments, within which their coat of arms is inscribed.



Preserved elements classified as Historic Monuments:



Following the death of Jean Bernon (himself a widower who had remarried) in 1712, the Château de Feusse passed to a different family, going to a niece of his second wife, born of her second marriage. Since then, the property has been passed down and subsequently acquired by various owners, who have managed to preserve some of its remarkable historical features.



On October 11, 1984, the chapel was designated a Historic Monument.



On January 16, 1989, other features were added to the list and received this distinction:



The sumptuous entrance porch, which opens onto a square courtyard

surrounded by the Château de Feusse and its outbuildings.

The facades and roofs of the Château de Feusse, on the courtyard side.

The entrance hall and the salon of the Château, along with their painted wood paneling, dating from 1699. These depict

Italian-style landscapes, battle scenes, and allegories. The colorful ceiling, meanwhile, depicts Time.



Finally, among the Château de Feusse’s remarkable architectural features is a tower attached to the main building, with a spiral staircase leading up to the attic that offers a true journey back in time.