Château de la Gournerie

En un regard

Le château en bref

Château de la Gournerie stands in Saint-Herblain, west of Nantes, at the heart of an estate of more than 70 hectares. It was built around 1620–1623 for Jean de Bruc, a statesman in the service of Richelieu, and a detached chapel was erected in 1624. With its curved pediment flanked by pavilions, the château is a representative example of seventeenth-century architecture; it was enlarged in the nineteenth century and supplemented by outbuildings dating from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The estate passed to the La Bouëxière family and then, from 1744, to the Maillard de la Gournerie family, several members of which served as mayors of Saint-Herblain between 1882 and 1944; in the nineteenth century the chapel became the family burial place. Acquired by the commune in 1973 and restored, the château now houses a restaurant, while the landscaped park, with its ponds and notable trees, is a public space for walking and leisure.