Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The seigneurial house of the Juquaise, located at Saint-Laurent-des-Mortiers in the Mayenne, was built around 1770 to replace the former château de Brûlon. This new building, designed by the architect Charles Dugué-Delarivière de Château-Gontier, consists of several rooms on the ground floor and apartments on the first floor, surrounded by lawns and outbuildings (buanderies, stables, sheds). The estate, mentioned in 1363 as the Jucaise, belonged to the seigneuries of Goubil and Saint-Laurent-des-Mortiers. In 1787 it was described as a "house of the Jucaize" with gardens and moats, remains of the old castle.

The chapel of the estate, originally located in Brûlon, was moved stone by stone to the Juquaise at the end of the 19th century. It houses funerary monuments of the second half of the 17th century, linked to the Gaultier de Brûlon family, seigneurs des lieux since the 17th century. This noble family, originally from Château-Gontier, owned the fief and sometimes took the title. The archives mention baptisms of their descendants at Saint-Laurent-des-Mortiers between 1619 and 1653.

The estate was sold as a national property on the 8th Nivôse an III (1794) for 19,100 pounds, following the French Revolution. The Gaultiers of Brûlon, the last lords, lived there until that date. The house, chapel, moat and commons of the eighteenth century have been listed in the Historical Monuments since 1993. The department archives of Mayenne and the sources of the Dictionnaire historique de la Mayenne (Angot & Gaugain, 1900-1910) document its history.

The site preserves traces of its seigneurial past, with architectural elements of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The moat and remains of the former castle of Brûlon recall its evolution, while the transported chapel illustrates the transformations of the estate over the centuries. Today, the house and its outbuildings bear witness to local history and noble rural architecture in the Pays de la Loire.

External links