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Origin and history

The Château de Courceriers, located in Saint-Thomas-de-Courceriers in Mayenne, is a medieval building profoundly renovated in the 16th century. Its current remains — the entrance gate to the Philibert Delorme, the medieval monumental door, chapel, house and tower transformed into a guest house — bear witness to its architectural evolution. Partial destruction in 1961 erased part of its material history, but the preserved elements reveal a stratification between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

The seigneury of Courceriers was held by a line of knights attested from the 12th century, the Courceriers, whose coats of arms (from Gules to 3 gold quilts) adorned seals and deeds. Their power extended to neighboring fiefs like Ballots, Grez-en-Bouères and Laigné, all dependent on Mayenne's chestnut. The first known lords, Gervais (died around 1218) and his brothers Guillaume and Hamelin, distinguished themselves by pious gifts to abbeys such as Savigny and Evron, revealed by the monastic cartulars.

The hereditary transmission of the fief follows a complex genealogy: Gervais, married to Marguerite, had three children, including André, Guérin's father. The latter, allied with a Riboulle by marriage, transferred the estate to his son Cesbron, then to Guillaume (mentioned in 1301). The family gradually extinguished, but its legacy persisted through the remains of the castle and the archives mentioning their alliances (Couesmes, Saint-Denis) and their conflicts, such as the trial of 1301 involving Guillaume de Courceriers.

The building thus embodies the history of a small local nobility, whose power was based on a network of fiefs and matrimonial strategies. The five leaves of their coat of arms, taken from the 14th century seals, symbolize this chivalrous identity. The transformation of the tower into a guest house today illustrates the contemporary reappropriation of this heritage, between memory and new function.

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