Malouinière
ManorHidden Treasure
Malouinière, located in Saint-Jouan-des-Guérets (Département 35), is a Renaissance château built in the 16th century. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- Manor
- Period
- Renaissance (16th century)
- Location
- Saint-Jouan-des-Guérets, Département 35, Bretagne
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 48.6050, -1.9831
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00090787
A discreet jewel of the Malouin region, La Plussinais reveals the lifestyle of 18th-century shipowners: a chapel dating from 1727 with vaults painted with polychrome scrolls, a veritable Baroque jewel box nestling in the greenery of Brittany.
History
In the heart of the Saint-Malo region, the malouinière de la Plussinais embodies with sober elegance the residential ideal of the great shipowning and privateering families who made the fortunes of the corsair town at the turn of the 18th century. Far from the excessiveness of the châteaux of the Loire or the rigidity of the middle-class residences of neighbouring Cotentin, this manor house known as the 'malouinière' belongs to a strictly regional architectural type, designed to combine granite austerity and interior refinement, country discretion and social prestige. What sets La Plussinais apart from the dozens of malouinières scattered between the Canche and Couesnon rivers is without doubt its private chapel, precisely dated 1727. A rare example of seigneurial domestic devotion in rural Brittany, it features a three-sided apse topped by a graceful bell tower, preceded by a large porch overlooking the courtyard. Inside, the panelled vault painted with polychrome foliage - arabesques of plants coiled in warm hues - offers a colourful surprise that you wouldn't expect in this landscape of grey stone. The rectangular main building sits alongside a pavilion to the west, linked to the central building by a lower section. This tripartite structure, characteristic of Malouin architecture, gives the whole a balanced silhouette without ostentation, where each volume finds its place in the gently undulating topography of the Ille-et-Vilain bocage. To visit La Plussinais is to immerse yourself in the intimacy of an era when the riches of great maritime trade were transformed into lasting stone, just a few leagues from the quays of Saint-Malo. There are no crowds of tourists here, no flashy sound and light shows: just the Atlantic light filtering through the centuries-old façades and the silence of a preserved estate, listed as a Historic Monument since 1980.
Architecture
La Plussinais illustrates the architectural canon of the malouinière with remarkable fidelity and consistency. The main building, rectangular in plan, features the sober facade typical of local granite: regular quoins, openings with moulded frames, and the steeply pitched slate roof typical of the Ille-et-Vilaine region. To the west, a slightly set-back pavilion is linked to the main dwelling by a lower connecting building, creating a tripartite horseshoe-shaped composition that defines a courtyard of honour without closing off the horizon - a common feature of malouinières, halfway between the classical château and the Breton manorial farm. The chapel, built in 1727, is the architectural jewel of the estate. Its plan incorporates a three-sided apse, a formula borrowed from local Romanesque and Gothic religious buildings but reinterpreted in a sober eighteenth-century style. A bell tower with a lantern crowns the whole, giving the chapel's silhouette a lightness that is underlined by the large entrance porch, monumental in relation to the size of the building. The interior holds the most precious surprise: a panelled vault entirely painted with polychrome rinceaux - plant motifs coiled into arabesques, perhaps embellished with gilded flowers and foliage. This painted decoration, rare in a Breton rural chapel of this period, testifies to the desire of those who commissioned it to introduce a Baroque or even Proto-Rococo sensibility into the heart of a private devotional building.
Related Figures
Armateurs malouins du début du XVIIIe siècle (commanditaires présumés de la construction)Artisan peintre inconnu (auteur des rinceaux polychromes de la voûte lambrissée, 1727)René Duguay-Trouin (corsaire malouin contemporain, emblématique du milieu social ayant engendré les malouinières)Robert Surcouf (corsaire et armateur malouin, héritier de la tradition qui donna naissance aux malouinières)Administrateurs de la Direction des Affaires Culturelles de Bretagne (instruction du dossier d'inscription MH, 1980)
Tags
Nearby castles
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Malouinière located?
Malouinière is located in Saint-Jouan-des-Guérets, Département 35 department, Bretagne region, France.
When was Malouinière built?
Malouinière dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Malouinière open to visitors?
Malouinière is currently closed to visitors.
