Château de Bénouville

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The Château de Bénouville near Caen was designed in 1769 by architect Claude Nicolas Ledoux and built in 1770-74 and 1776-80 by the request of Hyppolite-François Sanguin, marquis de Livry (1715-1789) and his marquise Thérèse Bonne Gillain de Benouville, heiress of the property. The interiors were under construction 1778-80 under the direction of Jean-François-Étienne Gilet, architect of Caen. In 1792, it was purchased from the widowed marquise by a fermier général before being guillotined 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 which installed a departmental maternity there (Gérard Lenormand was born there). In 1980, it was rehabilitated and restored - opening its doors to the public in 1990.

This château is one of the best preserved works of Ledoux. It's monumental staircase and it's architecture are of an astonishing modernity for the time. It is one of the major monuments of the end of XVIIIth century and a reference for the appreciators of neoclassicism.