Castle of Gastines en Mayenne

Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The castle of Gastines, located in Chemaze in the department of Mayenne, finds its origins in a medieval fief dependent on the municipality of Molières. In 1445, the lord claimed limited hunting rights, revealing a modest parker around his home. This site, initially modest, was transformed in 1660 with the construction of a mansarded house body, framed by a courtyard closed by a chapel and outbuildings, including a dovecote in a round tower.

The chapel, rebuilt in 1695 in a Greek style with pediments and pilasters, housed a marble bentier of 1575 and a shield with arms of the Poisson family. Destroyed in 1890, his furniture was transferred to a new road chapel. The castle, marked by a massive staircase unusual for its size, was gradually abandoned: in the 19th century, its rooms served as attices, and it remained unoccupied despite the sale by the Poisson family.

The seigneury of Gastines was owned by families of coroners, especially the Poissons, from Château-Gontier. Among them, René Poisson, drowned in 1703, and his descendant Jacques-Louis, last heir before the sale of the estate to a local farmer. The archives also mention alliances with noble families of Anjou, such as the Vaugirault Volaige, reflecting the social ascent of this lineage by annoying charges.

The fief was originally an agricultural and judicial area, as evidenced by the confessions of 1445 and the notarial acts of the Lévesque, prosecutors at Molières. As early as 1480, the Poisson family consolidated its power through strategic marriages and ecclesiastical or military functions, such as that of René Poisson, an officer under the Marshal of Lorges. Their decline in the 18th century coincided with the gradual decommissioning of the castle.

Today, the castle of Gastines, although still standing, bears the traces of this turbulent history: a 17th century building emptied of its residential function, whose agricultural outbuildings were transferred to local farmers. The remains of the chapel and the family archives, preserved in the historical bulletins of Mayenne, make it a witness to the evolution of rural elites in Anjou-Maine.

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