A vast brick and stone mansion with a 20th-century extension, in the middle of a small town in the Hauts-de-France region, 8 km from the Belgian borde
A vast brick and stone mansion with a 20th-century extension, in the middle of a small town in the Hauts-de-France region, 8 km from the Belgian border.
The mansion is located in the southeast reaches of the Nord area, in the heart of the Avesnois natural regional park, renowned for its meadows, wooded countryside and slightly undulating relief in its southeastern reaches (in the foothills of the Ardennes), nicknamed the little Switzerland of the north. The municipality boasts a genuine village way of life, thanks to its shops, schools and junior high school. Furthermore, there is a glass-making museum/workshop set up in a former glassworks founded in 1823. The area also boasts many marked walking, hiking, cycling and riding trails. There is also the "Carrrière du Château Gaillard", a former slate quarry that also contains bluestone, which gives the water a bluish appearance.
The municipality is 110 km from Lille, Brussels and Reims, 50 km from Valenciennes and 45 km from Charleroi (in Belgium). The station in Fourmies is around 10 minutes away by car. Lastly, Belgium is just 8 km away and the Aisne area is 10 km away.
The mansion, which takes its name from a former mendicant order in Syria, was initially built as a convent. Construction work on it began in 1724 and was finished in 1729, thanks to funding obtained by the nuns from Duchess Marie-Célestine de Holstein-Rethwisch.
In 1792, in the fury of the French Revolution, the outside chapel and part of the cloisters were destroyed before the buildings were rented, between 1801 and 1863, by a private owner to the local authorities to host the police services and prison. It was then purchased in 1927 by the municipality and transformed into a hospice which was officially inaugurated in 1933. In the meantime, between 1873 and 1885, it was revamped as a stately home for the Moreau de la Tour-Godard-Desmaret family. Lastly, from 1979 to 1983, as well as in 1989, the building was modernised with an extension to the south, part of which was demolished several years ago.
An entrance porch with a slate roof leads into the grounds in front of the mansion to the east. The main façade, with three storeys, stands out thanks to its brick and stone settings as well as the symmetry of its central section. In the second half of the 19th century, a scroll pediment and two balconies were added to the initial construction of 1724, on the western façade. Additionally, the main section has a half hipped slate roof dotted with hipped dormers and a chimney stack. To the north, there is a wing with a square tower topped by a slate pavilion roof with a zinc ridge cap, while to the south there is a wing with a similar roof.
To the west, two flights of stone steps lead down into the grounds, which spread around the mansion over approximately 7,000 m² and include lawns and copses as well as almost 1,000 m² which can be built upon.
The mansionThis rectangular building has two levels topped by an attic. The masonry-work is in brick, while the sleeper wall, belt courses and quoins are made of limestone. The slightly arched window frames are made of an alternation of bricks and limestone blocks. On the western façade between the two lowest levels, there is an old coat of arms carved into the stonework. Above it, in front of the roof, there is a sculpted great helm housed in an arched alcove, on either side of which there are plasters and arched windows, underlined by moulded cornices and crowned by a brick and stone pediment with a flame urn at the centre. On either side of the central section, two French windows on the first floor each open onto balconies supported by three caryatids, depicting men wearing cowls.
The ground floor
From the porch on the northern tower, an imposing glazed door opens into a hall, from where the main staircase with wooden balusters climbs ...
