in 1664.
Site In the 19th century, the site of the
château yielded polished stone axes dated to 4000 BC, which are preserved at the Baron-Gérard Museum in
Bayeux. Opposite the
château, Roman-era artifacts were found by
Arcisse de Caumont, as well as remnants of buildings with painted
frescos. However, the site has not been scientifically excavated. A
Merovingian necropolis was also excavated nearby in the 19th century. Its artifacts have been dated to the late 4th century or early 5th century.
Estate 12th century to the Foucault family , engraving after
Nicolas de Largillierre. A
château may have existed as early as 1191. By the end of the 14th century, the
fief belonged to the de Mailloc family and passed to the de Mannoury family at the end of the next century, possibly through marriage. The Saint-Malo church holds a tombstone that may belong to Guillaume de Mannoury, who died in 1501. The fief passed to the Saint-Ouen family in 1515 and remained their possession until the late 17th century. The Saint-Ouen family sold the fief by auction in 1673; the buyer was Guy Chamillart, the intendant of the Caen generality. His son,
Michel Chamillart, became a counselor in the
Parliament of Paris in 1676, then the
Controller-General of Finances in 1699, and
Secretary of state for War in 1701.
Michel Chamillart expanded the Magny estate through purchases in Ryes and exchanges with the King in Arromanches and Tracy. On 8 October 1694, by letters patent signed at
Fontainebleau,
Michel Chamillart obtained the right of high justice for the Magny fief, extending over the parishes of Magny, Ryes, Manvieux, Tracy, and Arromanches. The fief was then acquired by Nicolas-Joseph Foucault, the intendant of the
Caen generality (1689–1706), on 25 December 1694. The intendant Foucault's son, Nicolas-Joseph Foucault II, owned the
château from 1704 and lived there until his death in 1772. He expanded the estate by acquiring
Bazenville and
Damigny in 1714. In a legal battle against her husband over financial issues, the marquise obtained full ownership of the Magny land in 1719, although she never visited it. The Marquis regained Magny by decree of the
Parliament of Paris in 1728. He resided at the
château from 1736. He created an avenue of trees from the
château to the cathedral, depicted in 1736. From 1731, the marquis was one of the "lieutenants of the king’s great venery," spending winters in Paris, particularly at the Hôtel de Magny acquired in 1758. The Magny estate was then about 336 hectares, equivalent to "three-quarters of the current commune". His tombstone, defaced during the Revolution in 1794, is still present in the Magny church.
From the Foucaults until 1945 The estate passed to cousins who were unable to keep it and sold it on 31 December 1772. On 17 January 1773, the
château was sold to the lord of
Courseulles, Marquis Pierre Charles de La Rivière, born in 1749 in
Rouen and a soldier, He died of
smallpox on 26 December 1778, aged just 29, without issue. The estate passed into the hands of René Louis Gilles Hervé Clément Dubois de Littry on 22 January 1780, and he had only one child, a daughter, who died in childbirth in 1787. Mayor of
Bayeux in 1790, he did not emigrate, but did not live in the
château. The High Court was closed in November 1790, and the archives were burned on 24
Brumaire an II. On 20
Messidor an II, the marquis's tombstone was damaged in the church, and the
château's coat-of-arms decoration was removed. The
château was frequently requisitioned during the wars of the Revolution and the First Empire, between 1792 and 1815.Dubois de Littry's grandson, Claude Clément Auguste de La Tour du Pin, became mayor of Bayeux but died in 1812. His sister married Eugène-François-Charles Achard de Bonvouloir, and the estate remained in this family until 1945. Most of Magny's owners were mayors of the commune. The staff was numerous. Around 1840, Count Charles de Bonvouloir had the landscaped grounds and surroundings redesigned. Around 1900, work was carried out on the floors and roof. Guillaume de Bonvouloir, the father of three daughters, was widowed in 1935 and died on 14 May 1937. The
château was stripped of its furnishings at a sale in July. During the
Second World War, the
château was requisitioned by the occupying forces on 10 July 1940. A Kommandantur was set up: the building was used to house troops and to requisition materials for the blockhouses on the coast 4 km away. The
Kriegsmarine moved in nearby in January 1942, and the building was not damaged during this period. Magny was liberated on the evening of 6 June 1944, by the 2nd Battalion of the Gloucestershire Regiment, the German troops having previously evacuated the building "as a matter of urgency". During the Battle of Normandy, the
château was used as a depot. An airfield was set up to the south of the
château until September 1944, and "nobody [...] stayed at the
château ".'' in 2013, before the fire of 2016.
1945 to the 21st century 1945–2016 The Magny estate was sold by the daughters of Guillaume de Bonvouloir in 1945 to Guy Bertrand Marie Joseph Kermerec'hou de Kerautem, an antique dealer who had numerous items removed within a few months, "everything that could be torn out and sold was torn out and sold": woodwork, panelling, fireplaces, etc. and even "the most beautiful trees in the park" were cut down.Following a report, a classification procedure was initiated on 16 November 1945, resulting in the chateau and grounds being listed on the supplementary inventory of historic monuments by decree on 31 May 1946. Despite this protection, "looting continued ". The
château was transformed into a spinning mill, or more precisely a
scutching plant (separating flax and
hemp fibers). The ground-floor walls were demolished, and a 50 m-long concrete platform was erected to accommodate the heavy machinery. The chapel, which had become an obstacle to access to the lower part of the building, was demolished. Technical facilities were installed in the park, including hangars. In 1973, José van Pamel, son of the factory's founder, took over the business, which was soon to cease. A stud farm was founded but ceased operations. José van Pamel became mayor in 1983. He is the founder of
Land art in his country, and of
ecological art in 1950. The couple seems intent on bringing the estate back to life by opening a museum dedicated to contemporary art. The estate is used for exhibitions and as a
workshop. The fire broke out in the south wing of the building, on the 1st floor or in the attic, possibly as a result of electrical shorts. The fire started "on the first floor of the west pavilion". At the end of the disasters, one wing was ravaged, and half the roofs and floors were destroyed. The slab, however, held under the rubble, sparing the basement. A preservation association, whose articles of association were filed on 17 September 2018, was created and chaired by Hervé Baptiste, a former chief architect of historic monuments who had been contacted by the owner. The mayor of the commune is an ex-officio member. The association provides guided tours of the estate during the 2020
European Heritage Days. The association has around 200 members in 2021. 180 visitors come to the site on European Heritage Days 2022. At the end of 2020, a first project costing €60,000 took place, subsidized by the Heritage Lottery, the
DRAC, and the
Departmental Council of Calvados. On 30 August 2021, the
château was again selected by the Bern mission, which awarded it a grant of €300,000. Work on the "hors d'eau et hors d'air" project begins with a building permit granted on 7 October 2022. == Building and park ==