Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Gaudinières mansion, built in the early seventeenth century by the Hervé family, consists of a large central house flanked by two pavilions and a square tower at the back. Two remarkable doors, decorated with carved panels and mouldings, bear witness to the care taken in its construction. This mansion was originally associated with the village of Gaudinières, located near the town of Forcé, where potter activity reached its peak in the sixteenth century, competing with the centres of Thévalles and Saint-Pierre-le-Potier.

In the 17th century, Barbe Hervé, Lady of the Gaudinières, had an attired chapel built with a 25-pound rent to celebrate Sunday Masses, thus facilitating access to worship for local inhabitants and elderly or disabled people. The chapel, 8 metres long and adorned with naive statuettes (including several Saints-Michels), was authorized in Year XI to welcome confessions and Masses by the parish priest of Bonchamp. Traces of pottery ovens and workshops, active until the end of the 18th century, have now disappeared.

The site is also marked by its involvement during the Vendée wars, where residents such as Jean and Pierre Deffay, Lefaucheux, or the Hardouin brothers were recruited. The pottery industry, though declining, remains a key element in local history, while the manor house and its chapel illustrate the seigneurial and religious architecture of Mayenne in the 17th and 18th centuries.

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