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Origin and history

The Brûlon Castle, located in the Sarthe, is a major archaeological site whose origins date back to the Gallo-Roman period. A Roman villa is attested by excavations, while an earlier Celtic occupation is probable. The site is at the crossroads of two Roman ways, including the one linking Tours to Jublains, offering a high strategic position surrounded by water, ideal for defense and observation. This primitive nucleus will become the heart of the medieval village of Brûlon.

In the High Middle Ages, a Merovingian necropolis was discovered in 1774, with 150 sarcophagi in falun stone and sandstone. Although no habitat of this period is confirmed on site, some sarcophagi have been reused in the construction of the local church. These discoveries, combined with Gallo-Roman walls, reveal an "archeological thousand-sheet" covering the Celts, Gallo-Romans, Merovingians and later eras, until modern transformations.

From the 10th century, a wooden castle, then stone, was built on the feudal motte. Dismantled during the Hundred Years' War, he was definitively razed in 1774 by his owner, Chénon de Boulay, who built a seignential home there. This new castle became the place of the first public experience of air telegraph in 1791, led by Claude Chappe and his brothers, marking a major technological advance. The house was burned down in 1793 by the Vendéens, then replaced by a bourgeois house in the 19th century.

In the 20th century, the site underwent radical transformations: the bourgeois house was replaced by HLM housing in 1960, the moats were filled, and the last medieval traces disappeared almost entirely. In 1983, archaeological excavations preceded a store project, revealing the importance of the site and leading to its classification at the Historical Monuments in 1995. Today, there's only one 80 x 40 metre flat left, an explanatory panel, and a replica of Chappe's telegraph mast, reminiscent of his scientific and military past.

The site is also linked to early aeronautical experiments: in 1784 the Chappe brothers launched a balloon there, a year after the Montgolfiers. These innovations, coupled with feudal and archaeological history, make Brûlon an emblematic place of the Sarthe, combining ancient, medieval and scientific heritage. The successive excavations highlighted its central role in the territorial organization, from the Roman ways to the structure of the village around the castral motte and the church.

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