History

In the middle of a field of 70ha, the castle of Pignerolle was built in 1776, the day before the Révolution, for the director of the Academy of horsemanship of Angers, Marcel April of Pignerolles, rider of the king and lord of Pignerolle.
Ce castle is a counterpart of the Petit Trianon of Versailles. He was conceived by the architect, Bernard Bourdoul of Bigottière. He is of neo-classic style. The rectangular frontage, of 25 meters by 17, comprises 7 surmounted bays of pediments and four columns.

September 1st, 1939, Germany invades Poland. As of on September 2nd, the 125e Regiment of Infantry and the state Polish major settle in Pignerolle and the Polish government in exile settles in various luxury hotels of Angers. Angers and St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of Anjou become capital conjoitement of resistant Poland and that until June 1940. (Since, of the very strong bonds link the Anjou and the Poland, from where the recent creation of an association of exchanges and co-operation between St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of Anjou and the town of Gabin in Poland, which gave place already to a visit of young Poles.) In 1943, the navy of German war requisitions the castle of Pignerolle to install its center of communication there. 6000 workmen build there 11 blockhouses and of the hutments for nearly a thousand of German sailors. The Germans leave the places in 1944, leaving behind them a devastated park and the blockhouses on fire…

In 1946, the German hutments make it possible 1000 people, whose residences were destroyed during the war, to find a dwelling temporarily. A true life is organized with a school, a police station… The Orangery accommodates the church of the city and the blockhouses are used as hiding-places to the children! Classified historic building, the field is returned to National defense, by its last owners, in 1964.

In 1971, the Urbain District of Angers becomes purchaser of the field of Pignerolle and undertakes to restore it. The work, subsidized by the State, cost more than 9 franc million, for the castle, and more than 2 million for the additional buildings.

The Museum European of the Communication

The year 1992 marks a new stage in the history of the field of Pignerolle. The castle accommodates the European museum of the communication between the men, of the " Tom-tom with the satellite ".

This Museum, works of an impassioned collector, recalls the developments in the technologies of communication of prehistory at our days, and shelters an exceptional collection. The museum of the Communication presents the history of printing works, the telegraph, the cinema, the radio, television and the space conquest.

The field of Pignerolle constitutes, with its castle, its room of reception, its orangery and its park classified Historic buildings, one of the most beautiful sites of the Angevine agglomeration. Its gardens with the Frenchwoman alternating with alleys of hydrangeas, trees secular, spaces of plays for the children and the surfaces of picnic.

Pignerolle and Pignerolles

Curiously two orthographies generally identify the Toponymie field of the castle of Pignerolle. Pignerolle without " S" final and Pignerolles with a " S" final.

Confusion comes right from the start. Indeed, the April family of Pignerolles, whose family illustrated itself with the head of the old Academy of horsemanship, took this patronym in connection with their old acquisition of the field of Pignerolles with St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of Anjou (*). It is initially François April of Pignerolles, rider of the Large stable of the King who is named in 1680 by the governor of main Anjou of Academy of horsemanship at the time where the latter is still established with the Strings. Follow: Marc Antoine Avril of Pignerolles, wire of the precedent. Bernard Avril of Pignerolles, pûiné brother of the precedent. Charles Claude Michel April of Pignerolles, nephew of the precedent. Marc-Antoine Avril of Pignerolles, brother of the precedent. Marcel April of Pignerolles, nephew of the precedent. This last made build this castle which was then often spelled without the " S" final.

These two orthographies are used indifferently to indicate this place.

(*) April took the name of Pignerolles per marriage of the grandfather of Marcel, Antoine Avril in 1656 with Renee Eveillard de Pignerolles, that is to say 120 years before the construction of the castle. For some genealogical precise details here of the bonds which give the genealogy of April Sieurs de Varannes and Vau, of the Angevins middle-class men:

April of Pignerolles Ecuyers of the King are cousins with the branch of Postmasters April to the Rock in Breuil and Saint-Michel of the Hillock (Angers) and which they took as blazon that of their ancestor Georges Sieur April of Vau (bought on April 19th, 1557 to see:)

Bonds

• http://www.musee-communication.com/

• http://www.ville-saint-barthelemy-anjou.fr/laville/presentation.htm
• http://www.francetelecom.com/fr/espaces/actionnaires/club/evenements/museeeuropeen.html