Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

Le Manoir des Lauriers, located in Savennières, Maine-et-Loire, is an 18th-century property built as a recreational residence. Its history began in the first quarter of the 18th century, when François Poulain de la Foresterie, mayor of Angers and garden enthusiast, acquired several houses to erect a first building. His son, Charles Poulain de Bouju, continued the work by creating an entrance court and naming the property "Les Lauriers". The house is then enriched with terraced gardens, a central pavilion and landscaped elements such as a linden mail and a rose garden.

In 1723, the property was sold to Jean-Pierre de Swinford, a German gentleman converted to Catholicism, who obtained his French naturalization the following year. It embellishes the mansion by adding a large pavilion overlooking the Loire and French gardens. After several changes of owners, including Jacques Duboys, Rector of the Faculty of Law of Angers, the estate passes into the hands of bourgeois and noble families, such as the Trottouin, Angelian traders, or Jacques Gastineau, professor and member of the Royal Academy of Angers.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the mansion changed hands again, with owners such as the Countess de Gramont de Coigny, who added an entrance gate, or Robert and Violette Cointreau, who created a rose garden in 1971. Since 1974, facades, roofs and gardens have been classified as Historic Monuments. In 2018, the current owners open the gardens to the public, perpetuating the legacy of this iconic residence in the Loire Valley.

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