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Key figures

Origin and history

Château du Châtelier, mentioned in 1241 under the name Feodum Theobaldi de Chatellerio, was a seigneury of Laval County. In 1458, the texts describe a complete estate with courtyard, orchards, gardens, woods and hunting rights (garenne). A mill was found there as early as 1407, and the seigneury included agricultural land such as connil meurgers (bunny pens). The site also housed a Republican post during the Revolution, as evidenced by a 1794 correspondence between Commander Hayer and the Laval Revolutionary Committee.

In the 17th century, Le Châtelier became famous for its marble, exploited to decorate prestigious buildings such as La Sorbonne, the Louvre or the Malmaison. The columns and balusters extracted here also decorated the churches of western France. In 1600, the widow Jean Garnier, Adnette Gastin, regulated extraction by prohibiting architects like Étienne Corbineau from taking the stone without agreement. At the end of the 19th century, the estate, then owned by the Grand-Séminaire de Laval, included a closed park, a wooded valley and terraces overlooking the Route de Bretagne.

The Chapel of the Châtelier, whose preservation was requested in 1804 (year XII), and the discoveries of papers hidden in 1794 behind an oven illustrate its importance during the revolutionary period. The site, partially fragmented (the farm was sold in 1873), preserves traces of its seigneurial and industrial past, linked to the extraction of the local marble, called marble of Saint Berthevin.

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