Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The castle of Craon was built between 1773 and 1779 by the architect Pierre Pommeyrol for Pierre-Ambroise de La Forest d'Armaillé, Marquis d'Armaillé and Baron de Craon. Born into an angeline nobility family, the latter, a wealthy landowner, frequented Parisian salons like that of the Countess of Barry. The castle, in white tuffeau, blends a Louis XVI facade with a neo-classical interior, with 18th-century salons and a dining room redone in the 19th century.

During the Revolution, the Marquis, threatened, abandoned the castle in January 1790. In turn occupied by revolutionary troops and the Vendéens in 1793-1794, the estate was looted and destroyed: stolen furniture, trees felled, animals dispersed. The Marquis, imprisoned in 1794, escaped guillotine but died in 1806 without regaining his property. His daughter, Marie-Camille de Cossé-Brissac, recovered it in 1816 before it was sold to the family of Champagné in 1828.

In the 19th century, the Marquis Alain de Champagné modernized the castle (1897-1900) with architect Alfred Coulomb and sculptor Jules-Edouard Visseaux, adding an honorary staircase in wrought iron and Louis XVI decorations. The estate, classified as a historical monument in 1971 and 1990, includes a chapel, an orangery, stables, and a 47-hectare park combining French gardens and English landscapes, restored in the 1990s.

Passed by inheritance up to Hélène de Langle (marquese d'Andigné), who obtained the ranking of 42 hectares in 1943, the castle passed in 1954 to the family of Guébriant. Today, open to the public, it offers visits, guest rooms, and rentals for events, while preserving its original decorations and its factories (glacière, washhouse, 19th century greenhouses).

External links