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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château des Hunaudières is a neo-classical building located in Mulsanne, in the department of Sarthe (Land of the Loire). Built in the 18th and 19th centuries, it replaces a former seigneurial mansion whose estate extended over Mulsanne and Arnage. This vast territory included agricultural land, fir forests and moors, fragmented at the end of the Old Regime for economic reasons, leaving the former manor house abandoned.

At the end of the 18th century, a new castle was erected in a cossu style, with a three-storey house body, a mansard floor and two wings in return. Access is via a treed alley from the famous Hunaudières straight line, emblematic of the 24 Hours of Le Mans circuit. The estate, surrounded by a flowered parterre and a courtyard, is listed in the Inventory of Historic Monuments in 1966 for its facades and interior decorations.

Private property, the castle is not open to the public but hosts exclusive events, notably organized by Ligier Automotive, a company located in the nearby Technopark. Since 2019, an ambitious renovation is underway to transform it into a luxury hotel structure, with a reception room of 200 seats and ten high-end rooms. The project, led by Jacques Nicolet's Everspeed holding company (founder of Ligier), provides thirty rooms for 2023, as well as eco-lodges on the twelve hectares of the estate, mixing heritage and automotive passion.

The inscription in the Historical Monuments, dated 22 March 1966, concerns facades, roofs and interior rooms with decorations. The castle thus embodies a unique link between local history, neo-classical architecture and the universe of car racing, with a future oriented towards exceptional hotels.

The site is also located close to the 24 Hours circuit, between the communes of Arnage, Ruaudin and the southern suburbs of Le Mans. Its approximate address, 1 L.

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