BEHIND THIS FACADE, TEN CENTURIES OF HISTORY

In the immediate vicinity of the town, the Château of Nesmy, whose park you can visit, has a rich and ancient history.

In the Middle Ages, the land and the seigniory of Nesmy were a châtelainerie with right of high and low justice. Its oldest elements date from the 11th century: the castle was built on the foundations of a very old domain. The lords of the place are mentioned in the cartulary of the Sainte Croix de Talmont, of which 68 of the 536 charters, from 1049 to 1254, relate to Nesmy. The castle of Nesmy has always remained in the same family. It has known successions from uncle to nephew or niece, from father-in-law to son-in-law, but was only sold once, in 1596, internally to the family that occupies the premises.

The oldest known lord in Nesmy is Ascelin of Nesmy, succeeded by his son Ponce in 1060, then Jean in 1100, Hugues in 1120, and Jean II in 1140.
Then follow three successions from father to son-in-law, until Charuyau in 1223 whose descendant marries at the beginning of the 14th century N of Sainte Flayve.

Jeanne de Sainte Flayve married around 1350 Géhudin Chabot , succeeded by her son Tristan Chabot. Nesmy remained in the Chabot family until the 16th century, and the marriage of Catherine Chabot with Guy Mauclerc around 1500. Their son Léon succeeded them, who married Antoinette de Volvire in 1539. Léon's daughter, Marie Mauclerc, married Jacques de Saint Savin in 1557 and then Antoine Lignaud de Lussac in 1576, who sold Nesmy in 1596 to his cousin Isaac Chabot, a descendant of Tristan Chabot.

Isaac Chabot married Crispe Tinguy des Oudairies, then Eléonore Bodin de La Barre des Cousteaux. Tinguy's family thus entered Nesmy...

In the 18th century , the Château de Nesmy had the appearance of a typical Vendée dwelling. Its mullioned windows (fragments of which were found in 2007 during earthworks) have just been replaced by high arched openings in granite. From the current building is present the central body.

The revolution occurs, and with it the troubles of the years 1793 and following. Nesmy sees the infernal columns pass by, a plaque on the parish church reminds us. The castle is looted, and partly burned. Its occupants distinguished themselves during the defense of the Noirmoutiers peninsula, or, legitimists from the start, alongside the Duchess of Berry.

The Tinguy family remained in Nesmy from the 16th to the 19th century. We can cite successively:
- Benjamin Tinguy, husband of Anne Bertrand,
- Abraham Tinguy, husband of Suzanne Bodin then Marie Bejarry,
- Charles Tinguy, husband of Israelite Mauclerc (1671), then Jeanne Suzane Gourjault,
- Pierre-Benjamin Tinguy, husband of Marie-Anne Cicotteau (1713),
- Charles-Louis Tinguy, husband of Marie-Anne-Elisabeth de Montsorbier (1758),
- Louis-Ferdinand de Tinguy, husband of Henriette de Sallo (year IX - 1800),
- Charles-Louis de Tinguy, husband of Mathilde-Sophie Locquet de Grandville,
- Charles-Albert de Tinguy, husband of Mathilde de Moulins de Rochefort (1863).

In the 19th century , life can finally regain its rights in Vendée.

From 1842, Charles and Mathilde de Tinguy undertook major development and restructuring work on both the castle and the park.
Under the control of the architect Liberge , the round towers are added to the facade, and the roofs are raised, with transformation of the skylights.
Dependencies are transferred to their current location. They are built with an "H" shape, and adopt an Italian-type architecture, with low and wide windows, whose limestone frames replace the Vendée granite. These outbuildings include a courtyard of honor and an inner courtyard, onto which various premises overlook, in particular a laundry room, a bakery, three stables, a saddlery, a dryer, fodder granaries and a cart shelter...
For his part, the Angevin landscape nurseryman André Leroy (designer of the Mail garden in Angers), is transforming the park and the gardens. His plans, signed, have been found. They are dated 1842. They put an end to the old classical aspect of the park. Its contours form a set of 45 hectares, enclosed by a belt of trees made up of groves of precious species such as bald cypresses, redwoods, laricio pines, yews, purple beeches, etc. A path, called "Chemin des Dames", allows you to go around it in a horse-drawn carriage. This private road, maintained by the current owners, still exists, as do the learned drawings of the groves wanted by Leroy.

In 1860 , the work took on a new impetus, still at the call of the Tinguy family:
Guillerot , an architect from La Roche sur Yon, modernizes the castle. Two square towers, or pavilions, overlooking the 15th century terrace, which itself overlooks a lake, were added, surmounted by small pinnacles. The facade receives a pediment framed by martial watchtowers on which watch two lansquenets statues, the face in the distance - and the owls that live there.
The development of the park continues, attributed by the Abbé Sireau , a reference in the history of the canton in his work of 1964, to the Bühler brothers, renowned landscape architects. They create a canal and three new ponds in the wet meadows of the park. “View cones” are laid out, which overlook remarkable points in the park such as the belvedere of Belle-Croix, which gave its name to the ancient parish of Nesmy and of its neighbouring villages or pavilion of the gamekeeper. They are intended to be seen from the castle terrace. Particularly visible on the aerial photographs of Nesmy, they are being restored by the current owners, to find the initial perspectives and enhance them.

We can then say that Nesmy has acquired its current physiognomy.

Charles-Albert de Tinguy bequeathed Nesmy to the son of his niece Marie-Thérèse de Saint-Meleuc who had married Henri de Monti de Rezé in 1883. Edouard-Henri de Monti de Rezé, without posterity, leaves Nesmy to his nephews, Hugues and Marc d'Orfeuille. On their death, in 2006, their great-niece (granddaughter of Marie-Antoinette d'Albignac, born d'Orfeuille, aunt of the previous ones) and goddaughter, Elisabeth Chapelle succeeded them with her husband André.

The documents that illustrate this page testify to the different stages of the construction of the Château of Nesmy and the development of its park. We thus find an engraving of Nesmy in 1809, and plans of the park in 1828, a sketch by André Leroy, dated and signed in 1842 and a statement by a surveyor in 1925. Some very old photographs also appear .

THE TREASURE OF NESMY CASTLE...

A Gallic treasure found in the pond of the Château of Nesmy

In 1759, Charles-Louis de Tinguy, husband of Marie de Montsorbier, decided to clean out the castle lake (étang du Chàteau). But in the middle of the work, the contractor, Louis Laydet, fires his workers, under convoluted pretexts. He suddenly got rich...

In 1760, when the pond was dry again, a cache was discovered, in which Charles-Louis de Tinguy found a gold ingot. It is thanks to the lawsuit which will follow that the detail of the treasure of the castle of Nesmy is known. The reports list the objects stolen, unfortunately melted by receivers. We thus cite more than thirty rollets (gold ingots), a billhook of gold, knives, jewels, a double axe, etc.

More details on this discovery, and on the associated trial, can be found in the " Letter to Jules Quicherat, director of the School of Charters on a discovery of Gallic gold objects made in 1759 in the lake of Nesmy (Vendée )" . This document is also very useful for understanding the history of the hydraulic network of the park of the Château de Nesmy.