Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château de Montgeoffroy, located in Mazé (Maine-et-Loire), was rebuilt between 1772 and 1776 for Louis Georges Érasme de Contades, Marshal of France and governor of Alsace, who wished to retire there. Born into an angeline noble family, he entrusted the plans to the Parisian architect Jean-Benoît-Vincent Barré, assisted by Simier, a local master. The Marshal, often absent because of his duties in Versailles and Strasbourg, supervised the work remotely, while his son, the Marquis de Contades, settled there in 1772 with his daughter-in-law Julie Constantin de Marans. Two female figures also marked the history of the place: Hélène Hérault de Seychelles, former mistress of the Marshal, and her daughter-in-law Marie-Marguerite Magon de La Lande, both housed in the wing overlooking the floor.

The architect Barré kept the "U" plan of the previous castle, razed for the occasion, as well as two towers, the moats and the chapel dating from 1543. The new building, oriented north-east, included six rooms of apex and twenty apartments, including the Marshal's one, set up near the offices to monitor its operation. The oval dining room and the large staircase, moved in the opposite corner, illustrate the architectural innovation of the time. Interior decorations, such as portraits of maids on door tops, reflect the personal taste of the sponsor. The estate, spared by the Revolution and the Vendée War, preserved exceptionally its furniture (seats of Jean Baptiste Gourdin, furniture of Garnier or Roussel) and its archives, studied by historian Pierre Verlet.

Ranked a Historic Monument in 1984, the castle includes in its protection commons, chapel, entrance pavilions, as well as moat and court of honor. An underground passage, now destroyed, once linked the castle to a nearby monastic farm, testifying to the precautions taken during revolutionary disturbances. The site was also used as a setting in 1966 for Marcel Bluwal's TV film Le Jeu de l'amour et du chance. Archives and furniture, including dressers and tables signed by cabinet-makers Garnier, Durand and Roussel, were analyzed in the catalogue of the exhibition Chanteloup (Museum of Fine Arts of Tours, 2007).

External links