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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The Château du Bellay, located in Allonnes in the department of Maine-et-Loire (Pays de la Loire), is a neo-classical building built between 1807 and 1809 by architect François-Léonard Seheult. It replaces an ancient medieval castle with some 14th century remains in the cellars. This historic site was the cradle of the Bellay family, including the poet Joachim du Bellay (early branch), as well as several influential bishops and clerics. The estate, transformed in the 19th century, passed into the hands of industrial families like the Feuillant (linked to the Omnibus of Paris) and then to the Contades, descendants of a Marshal of France.

During World War II, German General Kurt Feldt requisitioned the castle in 1940 for his strategic position near Saumur, during the Defense of the Loire. The Cadets of Saumur gave there heroic resistance against German troops. The building, partially renovated in the 17th and 19th centuries, preserves a Renaissance pavilion of the old castle, as well as a canal and gardens built in the early 19th century, now partly disappeared.

Ranked Historic Monument in 1995, the castle protects its neo-classical facades, its commons, and the remains of its medieval past. The protected elements also include the garden and the canal, which witness the landscape transformations of the 18th and 19th centuries. The site remains associated with military, literary (via Joachim du Bellay) and architectural history of Anjou, while illustrating the evolution of aristocratic residences in industrial castles during the Industrial Revolution.

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