Château de la Haute-Braconnière

The Château (or Domaine) de la Haute-Braconnière is a historic fortified house located in Dompierre-sur-Yon, in the Vendée department of the Pays de la Loire region in western France, a short distance from La Roche-sur-Yon.

The core of the building is a maison-forte (tower-house) constructed around 1602 (the tower is sometimes dated 1608) by Jean Régnon, a younger son of a noble family from Les Clouzeaux who had converted to Protestantism. It is one of the rare surviving examples of fortified houses built by the Protestant community in northern Vendée in the years following the Wars of Religion, in a region that was predominantly Catholic. The contemporary outbuildings (communs) still display the characteristic regular round-arched openings of the period. Later additions include 19th-century wings. The ensemble stands in a four-hectare park with woodland and an orchard.

The maison-forte and the outbuildings were inscribed in their entirety as a Monument historique on 17 November 2010.

During the Second World War the owner Justinien Gillaizeau, a farmer who joined the Resistance in 1940, hid a Jewish family in the château. He was recognised posthumously as Righteous Among the Nations by the Israeli authorities in 2019. He was shot by the Germans in 1944.

The property was acquired by the parents of the present owners in 1962. Since 2016 it has been carefully restored by Anne and Jérôme Schmidt-Framinet. From 2020 it has operated as a high-quality bed-and-breakfast, with guest rooms in the 17th-century tower and later wings, a heated swimming pool installed in an old barn, and occasional table d’hôtes. The park is opened to the public on selected occasions, notably during the European Heritage Days.