Logis seigneurial de la Juquaise en Mayenne

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Origin and history

The logis seigneurial de la Juquaise is an 18th-century building located in Saint-Laurent-des-Mortiers, in the department of Mayenne, 1,500 metres north of the village. It was erected around 1770 to replace the old castle of Brûlon, of which it preserves symbolic elements such as moats and gardens. The architect Charles Dugué-Delarivière, originally from Château-Gontier, designed a building composed of several rooms on the ground floor, apartments upstairs, and a lawn framed by wings housing laundry and stables. The entrance, marked by a second lawn, hosted agricultural outbuildings such as pig and sheep roofs.

The fief de la Juquaise, mentioned in 1363 under the domain name of the Jucaise, belonged to the seigneuries of Goubil and Saint-Laurent-des-Mortiers. In 1787, a seigneurial confession described the site as including "the house of the Jucaize, the house of the colon, lactation, the gardens surrounded by moat", highlighting its link with the former castle of Brûlon. The original chapel, richly carved and sheltering tombs, was transferred stone by stone from Brûlon to the Juquaise at the end of the 19th century, by decision of the then owner. This displacement illustrates the desire to preserve a family and religious heritage linked to the estate.

The noble and influential Gaultier de Brûlon family owned the Juquaise for centuries and sometimes adopted the title. Originally from Château-Gontier, its members moved to Saint-Laurent-des-Mortiers, at the château de Brûlon, before marking the history of the Juquaise. The epigraphic archives of the family, preserved at Château-Gontier and in the chapel of Brûlon, testify to their local anchoring. Among the notable lords were Fouques de Changé (1362-1363), Simon de Chivré (husband of Jacquine de la Barre), and Geoffroy Gaultier de Brûlon, whose baptism in 1653 was sponsored by prominent personalities such as the Marquise de Château-Gontier.

The estate was sold as a national property on the 8th Nivôse an III (28 December 1794) for 19,100 pounds, in the context of revolutionary confiscations. This sale marked the end of the seigneurial era for the Juquaise, while preserving its architecture and history, today documented in sources such as the Dictionnaire historique de la Mayenne (1900-1910) and the departmental archives.

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