Blainville-Crevon Castle

Historical and archaeological research - undertaken by volunteers since 1967? - now allows us to trace the evolution of the medieval site of Blainville.

The importance of the castle is linked, at the origin, to the crossing of the Crevon, a sub-tributary of the Seine, by an important road going from Rouen towards the North of France.

A mound, still clearly visible today, was probably erected before the end of the 11th century, when William the Conqueror continued to strengthen his power in Normandy. A text from 1172 mentions the existence of a "domus" belonging to Geoffroy de Mauquenchy, of which a descendant (Jean V) was made Marshal of France in 1368. This family endowed the site with its first stone constructions, including some elements have been updated: foundations of the stately home of the 12th-13th century, stone ramparts, hand-guided staircase and 14th-century buried cellars.

In 1391, the fief of Blainville fell by marriage to the Estouteville, masters of the fortresses of Torcy, Arques la Bataille, Beynes. Jean d'Estouteville, Chambellan of Charles VII then Grand Master of the Crossbowmen under Louis XI, built a castle with cylindrical towers before the middle of the 15th century, to replace the previous structures very damaged during the Hundred Years War. The lower part of its ramparts and towers constitutes the main part of the remains currently decorating the top of the clod and its peripheries.

From 1512, the influential family of Alègre (originally from Auvergne) obtained Blainville by marriage until the end of the 17th century. Christophe II supports Henri de Navarre against the League, during the Wars of Religion (become king, this one holds a council of war in Blainville on February 12, 1592). On several occasions, the Rouen Parliament had the castle besieged and planned its demolition. The strengthening of the stronghold designed by Jean d'Estouteville and its gradual adaptation to the tastes of the Renaissance marked this era.

Jean Baptiste Colbert de Seignelay, eldest son of the Minister of Louis XIV, married Marie Marguerite d'Alègre in 1675 and in 1690 managed to have Blainville erected as a marquisate. One of his granddaughters passed it over to the Montmorency-Luxembourg in 1724. During most of the 18th century, the castle was poorly maintained by the tenants to whom it was entrusted. In February 1778, it was in very bad condition when, by a transaction, it returned to another member of the Colbert family (Louis Jean Baptiste Antonin). The latter envisages the restoration of the monument, then because of the cost, gives it up and implements the construction of a new house (in bricks). To this end, the upper part of the medieval castle (as rebuilt by Jean d'Estouteville, then developed by the d'Alègre ones), very dilapidated, is leveled and its ditches filled in to serve as foundations for the new building. From 1789 to 1793, many works continued, but before completion of the work, the site was sold in 1798 as national property, to masons who undertook its demolition.

In 1967, the place called "Le Vieux Château", on the edge of the village of Blainville, was nothing more than a pasture bordered by thick coppice where a few sections of very ruined walls were exposed. Today, in the same place stand imposing vestiges from the 15th and 16th centuries whose height, in places, reaches almost fifteen meters.

In the meantime, more than a thousand volunteers of all nationalities (around 1,000 h / d / year) took turns over their holidays and weekends to methodically search the site, gradually clearing it from an incredible mass of embankments (more than Around 100,000 m3 evacuated to date) protect and rehabilitate it in the broadest sense of the term: guided tours, educational workshops, exhibitions, international festival of contemporary music ...