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Origin and history

The Château de la Rongere, located in Saint-Sulpice in the department of Mayenne (Pays de la Loire), finds its origins in the 13th century with the mention of H. de Rongeria in 1239. This fief, initially moving from Château-Gontier, was given by the seigneur of Laval to Jacques de Château-Gontier, husband of Avoise de Laval. The right of high justice was recognized in 1404 and 1431, without ever obtaining the title of chestnut. A first mansion, replaced between 1545 and 1571 by a Renaissance castle, housed remarkable art objects, such as Flemish tapestries and paintings, inventoried in 1675.

In the 17th century, the castle was modernized and embellished with terraces, gardens overlooking the Mayenne, and a portrait gallery of the Froulay family. During the French Revolution, he became the refuge of the Marquise Henri-Frédéric de Chavagnac, born Montecler, who welcomed Jean Bézier, the future knight of Saint-Louis. The facades and roofs, as well as the park with its factories and hydraulic installations, were protected as historical monuments in 1991 (registration for the castle, classification for the park).

The site was strategically important, with a ferry and a port on the Mayenne, a place of passage for processions and toll ships. A chapel dedicated to St.James, founded in 1365, was served by chaplains mostly from the family Quatrebarbes, lords of the place for four centuries. The latter, Catholics despite the religious tensions, marked the local history, as evidenced by the resistance of Guillaume Quatrebarbes against the Duke of Rohan, Protestant leader, in 1571.

The seigneury then passed to the Menon and then to the Montecler in the 18th century, before being inherited by the Chavagnac through two marriages with the Montecler sisters. The Marquis de Montecler, emigrated during the Revolution, saw his wife imprisoned under the Terror. The castle, now privately owned, preserves traces of this turbulent history, mixing architecture, feudal power and memory of religious conflicts.

Among the remarkable elements are a mill mentioned as early as 1355, a carriageway attacked by Chouans in 1794, and luxurious interior decorations (tapisseries des Gobelins, silverware). The ensemble illustrates the evolution of a Mayen seigneury, from imaginary 13th century crusades to revolutionary upheavals.

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