Château de la Houssinière

Located on the banks of the Erdre, the original estate was built in 1440 by Pierre Landais as a hunting lodge. It later belonged to: Loriot (1596); Proust du Port-Lavigne; Louis de Bruc, advisor to the Parliament of Brittany and Keeper of the Seals in the Chancellery (1679); the shipowner family Bouteiller, especially Charles François Bouteiller and Guillaume Bouteiller. Thereafter, from Jean van Styrum onwards, the estate became the country residence of the prefects of Loire-Inférieure. His successor, Prosper de Barante, received the confidences of Louis de La Rochejaquelein there. Georges Le Mesle acquired it in 1855. He had the old manor house replaced by a new chalet-style castle, consisting of twenty-two rooms on four levels, according to the plans of the architect Henri Parent. Lemesle, ruined by his collections, was forced to mortgage it. The estate was then awarded to the merchant Eugène-Henri Tournade in 1863 for the sum of 112,600 francs. In 1867, the shipowner Denis Crouan became the owner and had it redesigned to suit the taste of the time. It then passed to his son Fernand, the client of the Belem. The park and garden were classified as natural monuments in 1949. In the 1960s, at the time of the construction of the Faculty of Science, it was acquired by the administration and is now used by the Rectorate of the Academy of Nantes and the Rector's residence.