Château de la Baugisière

The Château de la Baugisière is an 18th-century residence located in Saint-Michel-le-Cloucq, in the Vendée department of the Pays de la Loire region in western France. It stands between the historic town of Fontenay-le-Comte and the forest massif of Mervent-Vouvant.

The estate was originally known as the fief of Ugres; its present name derives from the Bogis family, who owned it in the Middle Ages. The Boutou family, of ancient knighthood, held the property from the 13th century. The present château was rebuilt in 1741 by the knight Maximilien Boutou de La Baugisière on the remains of the earlier manor. He married successively Suzanne Fleury de La Caillère and Henriette Green de Saint-Marsault and had three daughters. The estate later passed through Jeanne Boutou to her daughter Louise Racodet de La Guillemandière and then to the Maynard du Langon family. In 1880 it was sold to the Marquis Calixte de Jousselin and his wife Léontine de Baudry d’Asson. Since 2002 the property has been carefully restored by Jean-Pierre and Claude Lenglart d’Affringue.

The château consists of a rectangular main block flanked by two pavilions, raised on a terraced basement, with an arrival courtyard reached by a long seigneurial avenue. It is accompanied by an 18th-century chapel with a classical façade topped by a bell turret, a well, and a formal regular park laid out at the same period. The park is axially centred on the château and leads through woodland to a lake; it includes a hunting stele and, near the wash-house, a remarkable plane tree about three hundred years old. The gardens are undergoing restoration.

The château, chapel, well and ordered parts of the park were inscribed as a Monument historique on 31 March 1993; part of the avenue was added on 1 September 2006. The architecture is characteristic of the 18th century and relatively uncommon in the Vendée. The park is open to the public during limited periods (typically early to mid-July and early to mid-September, as well as on Heritage Days), with the option of combining the park visit with the château and an exhibition. Groups are welcomed by reservation throughout the year.