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Origin and history

The Château de Maubreuil, located in the commune of Carquefou (Loire-Atlantique), has its origins in a medieval estate mentioned in 1398 under the name of Maubreil. A chapelry dedicated to Sainte Anne was founded in 1671 by Michel Ménardeau, lord of the place. Before the Revolution, the estate belonged to the Ménardeau family, then passed through alliance with the Guerry de Beauregard, including Jacques-Louis-Marie, a caulian killed in 1815.

In 1815, crippled by debts, the Marquis Jacques-Armand de Guerry de Beauregard lost the estate to Felix Cossin, a Norwegian shipowner enriched by the slave trade and the race. His son, Felix Cossin de Chources, shaves the remains of the old castle (fired during the Revolution) to erect the present building, retaining only a dovecote, a chapel and a 17th century pavilion. The estate remained in the Cossin family until its marriage to the Dion in the 19th century.

In the 20th century, the castle changed its vocation: ceded to the department in 1934, it hosted a sanatorium inaugurated in 1938, then a rehabilitation centre in 1972. In 2013, the estate was fragmented: Crédit Mutuel set up a training centre there, while entrepreneur Philippe Rousse acquired the castle. After seven years of restoration, it reopens in 2019 as the first five-star hotel in the Nantes agglomeration, combining heritage and luxury.

The successive owners reflect the turbulent history of the site: from the medieval lords (Coupebra family) to the Nantes traders (Cossin), including industrialists (Marquis de Dion) and contemporary actors. The dovecote and chapel, witnesses of the 17th and 18th centuries, recall the old configuration of the estate, today shared between hotel, medical and municipal use.

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