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Origin and history

The Château de La Boissière, located in the department of Mayenne in Pays de la Loire, finds its origins in the 12th century with a watch tower built to monitor the border between the Duchys of Anjou and Brittany. Built near a ford on the Cheran, this tower served as a military post, accessible by internal ladders. Its defensive role reflected the regional tensions of the time, in a context where local lords strengthened their positions in the face of feudal conflicts.

In the 14th century, the tower was transformed into a castle by the addition of a south wing, adding a large room per floor and a turret staircase. Towards the end of the same century, a filling tower finished giving it its current square shape, integrating latrines. The site, girded with large moat still visible, becomes a strategic stronghold. Occupied by the English from 1356 to 1361 during the Hundred Years' War, he then depended on Savonnières' chestnut, although he had never had any fairs or contractual seals.

From the 17th century, the castle lost its military role and turned into a seigneurial or farm residence. An adjacent bulwark at that time left room for a farm body. The archives mention illustrious visitors such as Jacques d'Angennes (1550) or farmers such as Simon Gasset (1631). The seigneury, reunited in 1764 at Coulonges Castle, included lands, a mill, and feudal rights. Ranked a Historical Monument in 1987, the house and its moats remain as evidence of this turbulent history.

The site also retains an archaeological dimension: in 1860, justice of the peace René-Jean Pommerais discovered a megalithic enclosure in the field of the Fontenelles, suggesting a long earlier occupation. Today, the private castle opens to the public in the summer, offering guided tours to explore its medieval remains and seigneurial past.

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