Balangeard Manor: A 1634 Residence in Ruffiac, France
Site at a Glance
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- Eras represented
- Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- French
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Manor House
On this page5 sections
History
Balangeard Manor, also known as the Manor of La Rivière, stands in the hamlet of La Rivière in Ruffiac, Morbihan, Brittany, France. The lordship belonged to the Agaisse family in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, then passed to the La Chesnaye and Noblet families. A date carved on the entrance-door lintel places the manor in 1634.
In 1990, the manor’s façades and roofs received France’s historic-monument protection designation.
Remains
The manor stands at the rear of a courtyard, with outbuildings along its eastern and western sides. A portal on the south side provides entry to the courtyard and the main building beyond.
Courtyard and buildings
Entrance portal
The portal’s two pillars carry statues dated to 1625. They are thought to portray the manor’s owners at the time, Alain Chesnaye, a lawyer at the Parliament of Brittany, a regional high court in pre-revolutionary France, and his wife, Françoise Bressel.
Main building and outbuildings
The main building has three storeys, with two rooms on each floor. An exterior stair tower gives access to the upper levels. A lean-to is attached to the building’s northeast side and probably dates from the nineteenth century.
