Château de Bonnemare, Radepont

Château de Bonnemare in Radepont, France is a 16th-century Renaissance residence created under the French Renaissance cultural milieu and erected for members of the local nobility. Its construction followed the purchase in 1555 of an older medieval manor, and the estate became notable through its association with Nicolas Le Conte, a leading regional magistrate who later served as President of the Parliament of Normandy. The site gained regional importance for combining a refined residential block, an entrance gatehouse, a private chapel, and substantial farm buildings that together expressed the social and economic standing of its owners.

The complex replaced an earlier medieval house reputed to have been linked with Raoul de Bonnemare, the protagonist of the medieval lai “The Two Lovers” by Marie de France, a traditional association that connects the place to older local legend. In the second half of the sixteenth century Nicolas Le Conte built the main living range, the châtelet at the entrance, the chapel, and the agricultural buildings that framed the farm court.

In 1637 Étienne de Fieux acquired the property and directed alterations within the farm group. In 1668 he enlarged and reworked farming arrangements, notably expanding the estate press used for fruit processing. Over the eighteenth century the house passed through the Cromelin de Villette family and then to Charles Le Blond, reflecting typical transfers among provincial gentry.

During the nineteenth century ownership changed hands several times, moving to Louis Alexandre, a banker based in Rouen, then to Louis Cavelan, a merchant, and in 1888 to Gustave Gatine, a Parisian notary whose descendants retain family ties to the estate. In the late twentieth century the chapel underwent a careful restoration that received an award from the Friends of Vieilles Maisons Françaises. By 1998 the Salmon-Legagneur family owned the property, and in 2006 the farm wing was adapted to provide high-end guest accommodation and a self-catering cottage.

Legal protection for the property was established at the end of the twentieth century. On 14 January 1991 the group of farm buildings that border the farm court, together with their facades, roofs, the press and its working parts, remaining timber structures, sections of the enclosure, two arcades and a fragment of wall, were placed under official listing. The principal dwelling, excluding its north wing, together with the entrance châtelet and the chapel, were classified by decree on 16 October 1992. In 2017 the grounds hosted an international large-format painting competition for Normandy.