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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

Senonnes Castle, located in the eponymous village of Mayenne (Pays de la Loire), is an imposing building built mainly in local slate shale. Although partially in ruins at the beginning of the twentieth century, it was still inhabited by a farmer. Its sober architecture, without artistic ornaments, is distinguished by two floors of openings in the southwest corner of the courtyard and the remains of a enclosure including an isolated tower. The coat of arms of Adrienne de Salles, visible in the decoration, suggest renovations in the seventeenth century, when the castle was embellished under the impulse of the family of Motte-Barace.

The seigneury of Senonnes, originally under the control of Pouancé, was owned by several noble families, including the Tinteniacs (XIVth-15th centuries), the Poulchres (XVIth century), and the Motte-Baraces (XVIIth-15th centuries). The successional conflicts, like that between Jean-Marquis de la Motte-Baracé and François du Boisjourdan in 1623, illustrate the tensions linked to his legacy. In the 18th century, the Marquis François-Pierre de la Motte-Baracé, guillotine in 1794, affirmed the castle before its revolutionary confiscation. Returned to his heirs in 1798, the estate then included farmhouses and a cut wood, showing its local economic importance.

Ranked a historic monument in 1988 for its archaeological plate, the castle embodies the feudal and seigneurial history of Mayenne. Its gradual decline, already observed by Abbé Angot at the beginning of the twentieth century, contrasts with its past role as an administrative and military centre. The archives mention in particular its occupation by guards and a senechal in the eighteenth century, as well as religious beautifications commissioned by Pierre de la Motte-Baracé, as a sundial to the parish church.

The succeeding families of Senonnes reflect the alliances and conflicts of the Angelian and Breton nobility. Olivier de Tinténiac, first known lord in 1332, opened a line marked by strategic marriages, such as that of Guillaume de Tinténiac with Beatrix du Matz. In the 16th century, François Le Poulchre, master d'hotel of the Queen of Navarre and knight of the king, embodied the social ascent of the family, while his son Alexander, who died around 1580, illustrated the violence of the Wars of Religion. The posterity of the castle is also linked to figures like Adrienne de Salles, whose coat of arms still adorn the walls, or Jean de la Motte-Baracé, veteran of the Thirty Years' Wars.

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