Brûlon Castle en Mayenne

Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The château de Brûlon, located in Saint-Laurent-des-Mortiers in Mayenne, was a medieval building surrounded by moat and equipped with a drawbridge. At the end of the 17th century, there was only one colon house, a barn and a chapel, the old castle having disappeared. The remains were described as a space of a newspaper (about 34 acres), surrounded by moat, with a garden containing the chapel of Brûlon, built in 1628.

The châtellenie de Brûlon belonged to the seigneury of Saint-Laurent-des-Mortiers. In 1662, the traveller François de La Boullaye-Le Gouz stayed there after his marriage to Élisabeth Gaultier de Brûlon, heiress of the place. The Gaultier de Brûlon family, noble and influential, held the fief for several generations, with members occupying prestigious positions as advisers in the Chamber of Accounts of Brittany.

In the 18th century, the castle was replaced by the seigneurial house of the Juquaise, built around 1770 by architect Charles Dugué-Delarivière. This new, more modern building included apartments, outbuildings and lawns. The chapel of Brûlon, the only vestige of the original castle, was preserved and moved stone by stone to the Juquaise at the end of the 19th century. It housed mausoleums and sculptures, and was dedicated to the Virgin, Saint Anne and Saint Joseph.

The lords of Brûlon included families such as the Auvré (XIVth–XVth centuries), the Feschal (XVth–XVIth centuries), and the Brée, before Jacques Gaultier acquired chestnutry in 1553. The Gaultiers of Brûlon marked the history of the place, with matrimonial alliances and burials in the local church. The estate was finally sold as a national property in 1795 for 21,300 francs.

The chapel, founded by Anne Ayrault and Jean Gaultier, had regular masses and housed relics exhibited in 1675. Its richly decorated interior reflected the prestige of the family. The inscriptions and mausoleums, now missing or displaced, testify to the historical importance of this site, linked to the local aristocracy and power networks in Mayenne.

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