Château de Bénouville
Encyclopedia
Bénouville, Calvados
Bénouville is a commune in the Calvados department in the Basse-Normandie region in northwestern France.It is located on the Canal de Caen à la Mer close to Caen and Ouistreham.-Sights:* Château de Bénouville completed in 1777 by Claude Nicolas Ledoux...
, Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
, near Caen
Caen
Caen is a commune in northwestern France. It is the prefecture of the Calvados department and the capital of the Basse-Normandie region. It is located inland from the English Channel....
(northern France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. It was designed in 1769
1769 in architecture
The year 1769 in architecture involved some significant events.-Events:* In Bath, England, St James' Church is designed by John Palmer of Bath .-Buildings:...
by architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
Claude Nicolas Ledoux
Claude Nicolas Ledoux
Claude-Nicolas Ledoux was one of the earliest exponents of French Neoclassical architecture. He used his knowledge of architectural theory to design not only in domestic architecture but town planning; as a consequence of his visionary plan for the Ideal City of Chaux, he became known as a utopian...
and built in 1770-74 and 1776-80 at the request of Hyppolite-François Sanguin, marquis of Livry (1715-1789) and his marquise Thérèse Bonne Gillain de Bénouville, heiress of the property. The interior was under construction from 1778 to 1780 under the direction of Jean-François-Étienne Gilet, the architect of Caen. In 1792, it was purchased from the widowed marquise by a fermier général
Ferme générale
The Ferme générale was, in ancien régime France, essentially an outsourced customs and excise operation which collected duties on behalf of the king, under six-year contracts...
(tax collector) who was guillotine
Guillotine
The guillotine is a device used for carrying out :executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which an angled blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the head from the body...
d in 1794. His daughter inherited the property which remained in that family until 1927. It then became the property of the general council of Calvados
Calvados
The French department of Calvados is part of the region of Basse-Normandie in Normandy. It takes its name from a cluster of rocks off the English Channel coast...
which turned it into a maternity hospital (singer Gérard Lenorman
Gérard Lenorman
Gérard Lenorman is a French singer.Lenorman was born at the Château de Bénouville, Calvados when it was a maternity hospital. He is the son of Madeleine Lenormand and an unknown German soldier. Lenorman has four children: Mathieu, Justine, Clémence and Victor...
was born there). In 1980, it was rehabilitated and restored, opening its doors to the public in 1990.
Neoclassical architecture
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, manifested both in its details as a reaction against the Rococo style of naturalistic ornament, and in its architectural formulas as an outgrowth of some classicizing...
at the end of the eighteenth century. Its monumental staircase (illustrated, left) and its somewhat severe exterior architecture were very modern for the time.
The château is located on the west side of the Canal de Caen a la Mer
Canal de Caen à la Mer
Canal de Caen à la Mer also called the "Caen Canal") is a short canal in the department of Calvados, France, connecting the Port of Caen, in the city of Caen, downstream to the town of Ouistreham and the English Channel....
, on the southeast edge of the town of Bénouville
Bénouville, Calvados
Bénouville is a commune in the Calvados department in the Basse-Normandie region in northwestern France.It is located on the Canal de Caen à la Mer close to Caen and Ouistreham.-Sights:* Château de Bénouville completed in 1777 by Claude Nicolas Ledoux...
, and just southwest of the Pegasus Bridge
Pegasus Bridge
Pegasus Bridge is a bascule bridge , built in 1934, that crossed the Caen Canal, between Caen and Ouistreham, in Normandy, France....
, made memorable on D-Day
D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
, 1944. During WW II the château/maternity hospital was run since 1935 by Madame Lea Vion surnamed 'la comtesse', director (from 1947-1953 she was even mayor of Benouville) who also led a resistance group of the GMO belonging to the réseau 'Centurie'. The maternity hospital became a hearth of resistance for the region: fugitive allied pilots and French youngsters unwilling to work for the Germans found a safe haven here. Weapons and a maquis-wireless transmitter were hidden here. Vion was in frequent contact with resistance activists Leonard Gille, Rene Duchez and Henri Leveille. Georges Gondrée, the café owner near the bridge over the Caen Canal who secretly collected information on German defences there for the benefit of D Company 2nd Ox and Bucks under Major John Howard who would storm the bridge successfully in the night before D-Day. Via Madame Vion this important information from Gondree was sent through to England. On D-Day morning soldier Wally Parr, a sharpshooter from the Ox and Bucks, fired some grenades from a German anti tank-gun towards and over the château, because he erroneously thought German snipers to be present upon the roof of the building, until Major Howard made him stop this activity. Howard told Parr there were women in labour inside the chateau. At this very same moment, however, German Lieutenant Hans Hoeller an artillery officer from 8. Kompanie Schwere Waffen, 192. Panzergrenadieregiment, Kampfgruppe Rauch, 21st Panzerdivision was standing on top of the château in order to observe the canal bridge. He and his colleagues were forced by Parr's grenades to retreat downstairs immediately before opening their own fire on the Ox and Bucks defending the bridge nearby.
External links
Le château de Bénouville Site of the General Council of Calvados.- "La vie de château sous Louis XVI" Exhibition, July-September 2006
- Text concerning war period by drs. Carles Wolterman (Amstelveen, Holland) after i.a. S.E.Ambrose, Pegasus Bridge (2nd impr. 1988), D.Edwards, The Devil's Own Luck(1999/2001) and B.Parr, "What d'ya do in the War, Dad?" (2004) and data completed by Lt. H.Hoeller's memoires as described in Alexander McKee, Caen: Anvil of Victory (1964) = De slag om Normandie. Een van de bloedigste veldslagen voor de bevrijding van Europa (1982)