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Key figures

Origin and history

Milly-le-Meugon Castle, located in the town of Gennes (Maine-et-Loire), is a castral site dating back to the 13th century. The feudal remains, including a dungeon and mound ramparts, bear witness to a first wooden fortress rebuilt in stone at the end of the 14th or early 15th century by the Maillé family. These ruins, partially excavated about twenty years ago, also reveal collapsed troglodytic galleries, probably dug in the Renaissance. The site, located on a track between Gennes and Doué-la-Fontaine, had four successive castles, the first two having almost completely disappeared.

The major transformations of the castle took place in the 16th and 17th centuries under the impetus of the Maillé-Brézé family. Arthus de Maillé-Brézé, gentleman of the King, launched around 1560 Renaissance works, including a door in a vermiculated apparatus, stables designed for a hundred horses, and a palm playroom, then one of the largest in France (destroyed in 1835). His son Charles and his daughter-in-law Jacqueline de Thévalle continued the development, while Urbain de Maillé, Marshal of France and governor of Anjou, made him his residence until his death in 1650. The medieval seigneurial chapel, the 16th century painted "galleries" and the 17th century stables remain among the protected elements.

The present castle, partially rebuilt around 1835 on the foundations of the earlier buildings, incorporates an Italian style house and a 19th century gate of honour. Despite partial destruction (especially during the French Revolution, where it would have served as a stone quarry) and architectural modifications until the 20th century, the site retains traces of its successive phases. Ranked a historic monument in 2000, it includes 16th and 19th century facades, a wall of enclosure with Renaissance gate, and a plated plot covering the castral ensemble. Today it is private and communal property, it remains inhabited while bearing the stigmas of its turbulent history.

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