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Origin and history

The Château de Pimpéan, located in Grézillé in Maine-et-Loire, has its origins in the 15th century under the name Pin Payen. His story began in 1429, when Macé de Tesse de Chandemanche gave the estate to Jean Galardin and Marie de Charnières, who passed it on to Jean de Brézé. In 1435 Bertrand de Beauvau (1382-1474), brother of the bishop of Angers Pierre de Beauvau, acquired the seigneury and began the construction of the present castle. He expanded his estate in 1443 with the lands of the Forges and Claviers, confirmed by King René in 1461. The latter also authorized the erection of patibular forks in 1463, symbolizing seigneurial power.

The Beauvau-Pimpéan lineage deeply marks the place. André de Beauvau, a great grandson of Bertrand, hosted Bussy d'Amboise but had a tragic end: convicted of murder in 1579, he was beheaded in Poitiers. His widow Philippa de Naillac remarried with Claude III Barjot, transmitting Pimpéan to their descendants. In 1669, after a long trial, Henri-René Robin de La Tremblaye (1623-1711) inherited the estate. He became Marquis d'Alligny in the 18th century, before his grandson, Claude-René Robin, sold the castle in 1754 to Pierre de la Lande-Guyon, a rich Creole of Santo Domingo.

In the 19th century, the estate was transferred to Thomas Gendron in 1803. The castle, partially rebuilt in the 17th century (four houses) on medieval foundations, preserves original elements such as the chapel, the cellar and the stables. Ranked a Historical Monument in 1959, it illustrates the architectural and social evolution of Anjou, from the Hundred Years Wars to the Revolution. Its fortified enclosure and dependencies still bear witness to its enlivened seigneurial past.

Sources mention an ambiguous location between Grézillé (code INSEE 49261) and Gennes-Val-de-Loire, perhaps reflecting historical territorial divisions. The chapel, classified in full, and the facades of the cellar or stables (cadastre AZ 93) have been protected since 1959, while the rest of the castle (AZ 94, 95, 99) is inscribed. The site, linked to the Beauvau family and the barons of Trier, embodies the power struggles and matrimonial alliances that shaped the medieval and modern Anjou.

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