According to Albert Le Grand and Marc de Vulson de La Colombière , a young warrior from Cléder , named Nuz, helped Paul Aurélien to deliver the Île-de-Batz from the dragon that was devastating the island ; as a reward, he received from the Count of Guyture who administered the region a piece of land called, in memory of his courage, Ker-gour-na-dec’h in Breton (“the house of the man who does not flee”), with the privilege for the successive owners of this land to present themselves at the offering, fully armed, on the day of the dedication in the church of Léon , and to occupy the bishop’s stall in the choir . A wooden painting representing this memorable fight against the dragon was, according to Félix Benoist , kept at the castle of Kermenguy . For this reason, under the Ancien Régime , the lord of Kergournadech had the privilege, on the Sunday after the octaves of Saint Peter and Saint Pol , of presenting himself at the offering, “sword at his side, in boots and golden spurs” . From that day on, only the lords of Kergournadech had the right to enter the choir of the Léon Cathedral. This tradition was preserved until 1644.
The Kergournadech family was one of the most important in Léon in the Middle Ages, after the viscounts and with the Du Chatel, Kermarvan, du Penhoët. A proverb testifying to this antiquity is that “before there was a gentleman or lord in any house, there was a knight in Kergournadech”.
The first known member of this family is Nuz who married Alix de Léon. They had two sons, Salomon, who died without an heir, and Olivier, husband of Eléonore de Dinan. They are attested at the end of the 13th century . Their arms are chequered gold and gules.
Based on the old master window of the church of Cléder, Marc Faujour studied the genealogy of the Kergournadech and their alliances .
Olivier’s son, Guyomar, took part in the War of the Breton Succession between Jean de Montfort and Charles de Blois , during which he was taken prisoner; he declared then “that he would rather die than sell a small corner of his land to pay his ransom” so much did he love his castle .
Around 1504, the estate fell into disuse due to the marriage of Jeanne de Kergournadech with Alain de Kerhoënt (Kerc’hoent). Their son Olivier de Kerhoënt , married in 1559 with Marie de Plœuc (died in 1573), is known to have owned a rare book: Coutumes de Bretagne , kept at the British Library . Their son François de Kerhoënt married Jeanne de Botigneau with whom he had only two daughters and one of them, Renée de Kerhoënt , married onMay 1 , 1616with Sebastian II of Rosmadec , governor of Quimper.
Due to the death without heirs of Sebastian III of Rosmadec in 1700, the castle of Kergournadech was sold in 1726 to Mathieu Pinsonneau , hereditary marshal of Laonnois . It is to his wife Petronille Tribouleau de Bondi, and to his daughter, Petronille-Françoise de Pinsonneau, who married in 1714 Julien Louis Bidé de La Granville , intendant of Flanders, that the ruin of the castle is attributed .
In 1878, the castle, then in ruins, was owned by the Budes de Guébriant family and served as a quarry; some of the stones were used for the construction of the churches of Plounévez-Lochrist and Plouider .
The site of the Kergournadec’h castle was occupied in ancient times, since a burial mound was discovered there in 1638 .
Built around 1630 by Sébastien II de Rosmadec, the current Kergournadech castle was built on the plan of the old fortified castles, but without ramparts or moats (it was entered through a simple postern ): a square building flanked at the corners by four large round towers, with a gallery of machicolations . The base of the tower on the right, the one on the south, is armed with a mᴀssive spur . It was a splendid residence whose towers ended in domes surmounted by a lantern with columns; the weather vanes represented knights, lances in hand. Within the castle grounds was a vast main building with its Gothic doors and windows . The Renaissance style is recalled only by the ornamentation of the chimneys. According to Mᴀsseron , Marc de Vulson de La Colombière , who stayed there, wrote that it is “one of the most beautiful and regular houses that can be seen in France because of its architecture”. But Mᴀsseron adds that “one had to be a Breton gentleman lost in his moors to have the idea of building a fortified residence in this way in the last years of the reign of Louis XIII ” .
Marc de Vulson de La Colombière published two engravings by Jean Picart, one of which is dated 1632, and a plan of the castle .
Later (1825), Miorcec de Kerdanet described these engravings as follows: “We see that the castle in 1644 was built of beautiful cut stone, flanked by four large towers, with machicolations, sentry boxes and arrow slits. Within the castle walls, there was a vast main building with its Gothic doors and windows. Behind the castle, we noticed a beautiful pond surrounded by some woods, and further away, a chapel grouped on a small hill “
However, this “archaic taste for towers” should not hide the fact that Kergournadech is an “astonishing achievement” marking an “architectural research” that is of a Renaissance order: “The ruin of Kergournadech – since its voluntary destruction in the 18th century – has greatly deceived those who have described it. They were struck by the archaic appearance of the large towers and their “machicolations”, but the plan that the interior of the ruin clearly shows is a Renaissance plan based on two ceremonial staircases that occupy the middle of the interior space: a layout very similar to the Château de Challuau in Seine-et-Marne, known from the second book (1579) of the Most Excellent Buildings of France by Jacques Ier Androuet du Cerceau . The Château de Chambord , in its first state, is also based on a square plan flanked by four towers and articulated around a central staircase.
Due to the death without heirs of Sebastian III of Rosmadec in 1700, the castle of Kergournadech was sold in 1720 to Mathieu Pinsonneau , hereditary marshal of Laonnois , for the sum of 502,000 livres. The archives of the castle of Kérouzéré preserve a copy of the deed of sale with a description of the lordship and the castle, published by Marc Faujour .
The ruin of the castle is attributed to Mathieu Pinsonneau’s wife, Pétronille Tribouleau de Bondi, and to her daughter, Pétronille-Françoise de Pinsonneau, who married Julien-Louis Bidé de la Grandville, intendant of Flanders, in 1714. The stones were sold (the castle became an open-air quarry). A large pavilion dating from the 18th century was built near the ruins .
In 1878, the then ruined castle was owned by the Budes de Guébriant family and continued to serve as a quarry, some of the stones were used for the construction of the churches of Plounévez-Lochrist and Plouider .
