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Origin and history

The castle of Bonnétable, situated on horseback in the communes of Bonnétable and Briosne-lès-Sables in the Sarthe (Pays de la Loire), has its origins in the 12th century under the name of Malétable. Certified in 1170, this castle belonged to the Rotrou family and included a dungeon, walls and moats, surrounded by a forest of a thousand acres. Ruined during the Hundred Years' War (English occupation in 1420-1422), it was rebuilt from 1476 by John of Harcourt, under the permission of Louis XI. Mathurin Delandelle, master of work, directs the construction of a 110-square-foot building with corner towers, slate chapel, and machicoulis made of cut stone.

The seigneury then passed to the Coesmes families, Bourbon-Soissons, then to Albert de Luynes in the 18th century. Uninhabited, the castle lost its moat, filled at that time. During the Revolution, he remained the property of Louis Joseph Charles Amable d'Albert de Luynes, a non-migrant, before being passed on to his daughter, Pauline Hortense, Duchess of Montmorency, who died there in 1858. A description of 1836 by the Duchess of Dino evokes an "old manor house with large turrets, solid and little adorned", surrounded by a forest where a stone factory employed 68 people.

Around 1880, Sosthène II de La Rochefoucauld, Duke of Doudeauville, entrusted architect Henri Parent with a major renovation in a neo-Gothic style: opening holes, addition of turrets, bowl-windows, and symbolic interior decorations (Mélusine, family currency). The landscapers Bühler then redesigned the park, recreated the moat, and created a piece of water. In 1908, the dining room was enriched with Beauvais tapestries, and the chapel decorated with religious medallions. The factory, founded in 1832, closed in 1912.

The estate, including commons, park, vegetable garden, windmill Bollée and pregnant, is listed in the Historic Monuments by order of 29 November 1991. Crossed by the Tripoulin (a tributary of the Saosnoese Orne), it is bordered by historical routes such as the 301. The descendants of La Rochefoucauld retained their property until the end of the 20th century.

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