LE VIEUX MONASTÈRE

A PIECE OF HISTORY

SAINT-MARTIN-DE-CERZAY

“Seat of a micro-parish and a fief which belonged around 1540 to Pierre Brun and his wife, born Jacquette de Cumont, Saint-Martin-de-Cerzay fell a little later to their eldest daughter, Marguerite, Dame des Salles, first married to Charles Horric then to Louis Moreau, seigneur of Panloy, purchaser in 1565 of the neighboring fief of Lesbaupinière. The latter’s daughter, Catherine, widow of Jean Boisseau, lord of Pouzou and Vervant*, managed to have the land of Laléard awarded to her around 1630, which she transmitted with the dwelling of Saint-Martin-de-Cerzay to his daughter Jeanne, widow of Gabriel de Goulard. From this time and for a long period, the house was gradually reduced to the state of a farm, in favor of the Château de Laléard. Isolated in the middle of the fields, like the parish church that it accompanies, the house is built inside a vast courtyard bounded on three sides by outbuildings and on the north by a large wall. Oriented east-west, it is a small rectangular main building with a floor dating back to the 16th century. According to a proven principle, it was originally served by a staircase contained in a cylindrical tower which leans against the east facade. It has long since lost the pepper pot covered with slates which was to crown it and mark the nobility of the place.”

(excerpt from the book Châteaux Manoirs et Logis by Mr Frédéric Chasseboeuf)