Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The castle of Saint-Hénis, located in Andigné in Maine-et-Loire, is a monument of the 15th and 16th centuries, surrounded by moat and organized around three distinct courtyards: honorary courtyard, forecourt and bassyard. It preserves a medieval house, a neo-Gothic chapel, an entrance castle and communes, reflecting its role as a seigneurial residence and agricultural estate. The ensemble, rebuilt in the 16th century from a 15th century mansion, illustrates the defensive and residential architecture of the period, with subsequent additions to the 17th and 19th centuries.

Originally called Bois de la Cour, the castle belonged from the 14th century to the family of Mathefelon, then passed to the d'Andigné by marriage in 1340. In the 16th century Mathurin d'Andigné, commander of the castle of Craon and close to Francis I, undertook major works. The estate changed its name in 1622 with Anne de Franquetot, Baroness of Saint-Hénis, before being acquired in 1713 by the Ayrault family, which kept it until 1891. The latter, criminal lieutenants in Angers, partially rehabilitated the castle in the 19th century, including the chapel and communes.

Ranked Historic Monument in 1998, the castle includes a garden recreated in 1991-1992 and radiant planted avenues. Its spatial organization — home, outbuildings, moat and pool — bears witness to its dual use: aristocratic residence and farming. The restorations of the 19th and 20th centuries, such as that of the châtelet or the chapel of Saint Sebastian (founded in 1526), preserve this heritage linked to the wars of Religion and local history.

The site, originally the seat of the seigneury of the Bois de La Cour, replaces a nearby mansion destroyed around 1850. The Ayrault de Saint-Hénis made it their main residence until 1837, before building the Château de La Roche aux Fées au Lion-d-Angers. Today, the whole, with its moat, gardens and old alleys, offers a remarkable example of anangevine seigneurial architecture, marked by family alliances and successive adaptations.

External links