Château de Boistissandeau

The Château de Boistissandeau is a late Renaissance château located in Les Herbiers (south of Ardelay), in the Vendée department of the Pays de la Loire region in western France. Its distinctive façade is crowned by a large pink-brick pepper-pot turret (poivrière). The façades, roofs, a Renaissance fireplace and the formal gardens have been partially listed as a Monument historique since 23 January 1958.

The present château (the “new château”) was built between approximately 1570 and 1620 by the Olivereau family on a site whose origins date back to the 13th century. The domain covers 17 hectares and includes formal French gardens, a kitchen garden, a park, meadows and woods. The gardens, redesigned in the 18th century and later restored by the landscape architect Achille Duchêne, are also protected.

Notable owners include the Hillerin family. Jean-Baptiste Laurent d’Hillerin (1704–1779), a scientist and corresponding member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, enlarged the château, developed the terraced gardens and orangeries, and frequently received his friend, the naturalist René-Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur.

On 31 January 1794, during the War in the Vendée, the elderly chatelaine Marie-Agathe d’Hillerin and her two daughters were murdered on the estate by troops of the “Colonnes Infernales”.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the La Morinière family carried out major restorations. From 1942 to 2003 the Brothers of Saint-Gabriel occupied the site (first as a novitiate, later as a retirement home). Acquired by the Département de la Vendée in 2003, the domain has been managed by the Communauté de Communes du Pays des Herbiers since October 2024. It is currently undergoing restoration and is open for visits.