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Key figures

Origin and history

Neuvillette Castle, mentioned in 1160 as Nova Villula, is a medieval fief located 3 km southwest of Jublains, Mayenne. Originally described as a "old house badly basty" in the 15th century, it included a manor house surrounded by walls, gardens, pools and a runaway. Its legal status was complex: Bourgon's for the domain, Mayenne's for the justice, and the crown for the Viscount.

In 1528, François I erected Neuvillette as a vicount for Bertrand de Caradreux, his cousin, authorizing the construction of a fortified castle with drawbridge, towers and machicoulis. Despite this permission, the castle retained a residential rather than a military aspect, with a body of houses decorated with sculptures, shrouded windows, and a pre-existing chapel (mentioned in 1518). The vaulted cellars and a forge stove near the pond testify to its local economic anchor.

The family of Caradreux, lords of Neuvillette for two centuries, added defensive and symbolic elements, such as heraldic leopards on their coat of arms. In the 17th century, the seigneury passed to the Morell d'Aubigny, a noble Norman family allied with Montmorency and Rohan. The transformations of the 18th to 19th centuries, including tapered towers and a western wing, completed its metamorphosis into a seigneurial home, gradually erasing its medieval origins.

The archives reveal conflicts between lords, such as the protest of the Lord of Bourgon against the erection in Viscount, judging the house unworthy. The papal letters of 1518 and the royal ordinances of 1528 illustrate the strategic and religious importance of the site. Today, Neuvillette embodies the evolution of a modest mansion into a castle emblematic of the Mayan heritage.

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