Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The château du Fresne, also known as château du Frêne, is a 16th-century building built in 1589 on a granite plate, located in Champéon, in the department of Mayenne, 2,500 meters southwest of the village. This medieval castle, surrounded by moat and equipped with an artificial pond, houses a dovecote on rare columns, erected on an island in the middle of the moat. Historically, he was a member of the fiefs of Lassay and Mayenne, with records of seigneurial transactions as early as 1469 between Jean de Landepoutre and Jean de Vendosme, seigneur of Lassay.

Reconstructed in the 17th century and then remodeled and decorated in the 18th century, the castle preserves a large room decorated with woodwork and paintings, as well as a room depicting the judgment of Solomon on the haze of a fireplace. The moat also gird the gardens. The chapel, partly dated from the 14th century, is distinguished by its ogival door, its curved window and a high gable. It houses a bell dedicated to François de Beauregard and Renée de la Dufferie, linked to a mass foundation established in 1688 after family trials.

Two elements of the castle have been listed as Historic Monuments since September 8, 2008: the two ground floor rooms and the pigeon house. The chapel and its outbuildings have been registered since 17 April 1986. The site is also associated with local figures such as Michel Cibois, vicar refugee at the castle in 1798, and René Morice, dit Monte-à-l'assault, a Chouan resident in Petit-Frêne in 1799.

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