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Origin and history

The Château de Noirieux, located in the delegated commune of Saint-Laurent-des-Mortiers (Mayenne), has its origins in the Middle Ages in the form of a fief of Azé or Château-Gontier. The first written records date back to the 11th century, with spelling variants like Noyieux or Noerieux, perhaps evoking a place planted with walnuts. The site, crossed by an ancient Roman route linking Angers to the confluence of the Sarthe and Mayenne, successively houses several seigneurial families, including the Briand (XVth-17th centuries), the Le Maistre (VIIth century), and the Goislard de Montsabert, who gave up the estate in 1742.

The building of the present castle began in 1742 under Louis-Pierre Ernault de Montiron, the king's adviser, who demolished the former manor house of the Grenonnière to build an 18th-style residence, completed in 1747. The chapel, dedicated to Notre-Dame Refuge des Pêcheurs, was blessed the same year and played a clandestine religious role during the Terror. In 1795, the castle became the scene of a bloody confrontation between Chouans, led by Joseph Coquereau, and the Republican troops, leaving traces of bullets in the walls and a commemorative plaque in the chapel.

In the 19th century, the family of Quatrebarbes acquired Noirieux in 1842 and undertook important restorations, including that of the chapel, authorized by the bishop of Le Mans in 1849. A cross path is erected there, and Pope Pius IX offers a blessed ciborium (now gone). The estate, passed to the Letourneurs du Val and then to the Grenet in the 20th century, houses a novitiate during the Second World War before being transformed into a farm and then a rural gite. Since 1978, the Potier Dejean de La Bâtie has been working on its restoration, preserving its architectural and historical heritage.

The castle, which has been listed as a Historic Monument since 1990 for its facades and roofs, preserves remarkable elements such as a double enclosure of moat (partly filled), a park wooded with centuries-old oaks, and outbuildings including a bakery and an orange shop. Its history reflects the political and social upheavals of Anjou and Mayenne, from the wars of Religion to the Revolution, through German occupation.

Among the notable anecdotes, a slate dating from 1747, found in 1880, attests to the end of the work, while a plaque in the chapel commemorates the victims of 1795. The archives also mention the faithfulness of the farmers, who had been attached to the land for four centuries, and the presence of German graffiti engraved during the Second World War. The estate, reduced to 10 hectares today, remains a living testimony to the rural and noble heritage of western France.

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