Martainville Manor (Château de Martainville)

The Château de Martainville served as the architectural inspiration for the famous Château de Chenonceau in the Loire Valley. Thomas Bohier, general des finances de Normandie, visited Martainville and was so impressed by its innovative design that he incorporated similar elements when building Chenonceau in the early 16th century.

In 1905, the château narrowly escaped destruction when a cattle merchant purchased it with plans to demolish the historic structure. The French State intervened and bought the property in 1906, saving this Renaissance gem just in time. The merchant had already cut down all the oak tree alignments on the estate before the rescue.

The château pioneered an absolutely symmetrical floor plan revolutionary for its time, with a central corridor and independent rooms on each side. This departure from the traditional medieval layout of interconnected chambers influenced over a dozen 16th-century Norman buildings and marked a significant shift in French residential architecture.