En un regard
Le château en bref
The Château de Saint-Germain-de-Livet, in the Calvados department, stands on the site of a 12th-century fortress of the Tyrel family, which passed by marriage to the Louvet family and then, in 1462, to the Tournebu family through the marriage of Jeanne Louvet and Pierre de Tournebu, who built a large half-timbered manor house there. Around 1584, Jean de Tournebu and his wife Marie de Croismare had the present château built, with its famous chequerboard façade of green glazed bricks from the Pré-d'Auge and white Caen stone; an Italian-style arcaded gallery was added in 1588. Owned by the Tournebu family until 1810, then by the Foucault family, the château became a municipal museum of the town of Lisieux in 1957.