Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château de l'Aune Montgenard, also called Montgenard-le-Capitaine, was a seigneurial house located 3 km north of Martigné-sur-Mayenne, on the road to Mayenne. In the 15th century, it was designated a fief and moving estate of the Motte-Husson, including lands, ponds and woods. In 1624 it included a slate housing body, ditches, a drawbridge and a dovecote, surrounded by walls. The estate spread over lands such as the Chamorière or the Geraudière, and was divided between the Grand and the Petit-Montgenard, the latter of the first.

The chapel of Montgenard, mentioned in 1516, depended on the parish of Commer. The site is also linked to the religious history of the 19th century: Adèle Garnier, a teacher at the castle in 1862, had inside visions of Christ and later founded the Benedictines of the Sacred Heart of Montmartre after reading an article on the Parisian basilica. Her mystical experience, where she heard "This is where I want you!" marked a spiritual turning point for the place.

The lords of Montgenard, like the family of the Plessis, carried weapons similar to those of the Plessis of Jarzé. François du Plessis, in 1666, attested that his trisaiel already lived in 1495. Local archives (charters, parish registers) and cartulars of Fontaine-Daniel Abbey (XIIth–XIIIth centuries) document the evolution of the fief, from medieval feodum to an agricultural complex after the Revolution. Today, the buildings are farms, but their history reflects the seigneurial and religious anchor of Mayenne.

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