Château de Magny-en-Bessin

En un regard

Le château en bref

Magny-en-Bessin Castle is a French castle in the Classical style, located in the commune of Magny-en-Bessin, in the Calvados department. At the end of the seventeenth century, the estate belonged to a prominent figure, Nicolas-Joseph Foucault, and it gradually expanded until, by the end of the century, it covered three quarters of the present-day commune. The castle was built in the eighteenth century on earlier foundations whose date the current state of knowledge does not allow to be established, and of which no elevation remains visible. The castle changed owners at the beginning of the nineteenth century but enjoyed a period of stability and local prominence. A further sale was accompanied by particularly brutal mutilations immediately after the end of the Second World War. It was listed as a monument historique by order of 31 May 1946. Converted into a textile factory for a quarter of a century, then abandoned from the 1970s onwards, it was partially destroyed by two successive fires in March 2016. The castle was selected by Stéphane Bern, head of the Mission d'identification et de sauvegarde du patrimoine en péril, to receive emergency financial aid from the Loto du patrimoine on two occasions: during the draw of 15 and 16 September 2018, held during the European Heritage Days, and again in 2021.