Castle of the Court en Mayenne

Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château de la Cour is a historic building located in Vautorte, in the department of Mayenne, in the Pays de la Loire region. Originally, it was a fief of the Châtellenies d'Ernée and Daviet, with land justice and parish seigneury. The estate, mentioned as Vautorte in 1408, has evolved over the centuries: it was built as a county in 1653 for the benefit of François Cazet de Vautorte, before being modernized into a bourgeois home. The chapel, attested from the 15th century, was founded in 1651 after the transfer of the benefit of the Frossière.

During the French Revolution, the castle was the target in May 1790: a group of 200 people from Placé, led by loggers from the forest of Mayenne, looted its attices, carrying wheat and buckwheat reserves. The parishioners of Vautorte intervened to defend the administrator, triggering a battle. The estate, which was sequestered in Year III because of the alleged emigration of its owner, Mr. Bailly de Fresnay, was finally returned to his wife, Aimée de l'Escalopier, after proof of non-emigration.

The castle is also linked to a 60 arpent wood, the wood of Buisson, looted during the Revolution. The archives mention various names for the domain over the centuries, such as La Court de Vautorte (1453) or Le chasteau et court de Vautorte (1619). The chapel, a central element of the site, reflects its religious and seigneurial importance, while the old maps (Cassini, Maijor State) attest to its territorial anchor, between forest and village.

The lords of Vautorte, although little detailed in the sources, marked the local history, especially by the 17th century county legation. The site, now reduced to a bourgeois home, preserves traces of its medieval and modern past, between seigneurial justice, agricultural exploitation and revolutionary conflicts. The departmental and national archives, as well as the work of Abbé Angot, provide the main sources of his history.

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