Manoir de Venevelles

En un regard

Le château en bref

Nestled at the bottom of a wooded valley, at the confluence of the Aune and the Casseau stream, the Manoir de Venevelles is one of the most endearing seigneurial residences of the Sarthe stretch of the Loir valley, in the commune of Luché-Pringé. Rebuilt in the second half of the 15th century by the d'Espaigne family, who kept it until the Revolution, it is arranged around a central main building flanked by two towers and extended by a chapel blessed in 1503, whose vaults carry on the Angevin Gothic tradition. In the 16th and 17th centuries, four corner pavilions were added to frame the whole, while moats enclose the site on three sides and farm buildings border it to the north. In the 17th century, the manor was an active centre of local Protestantism. Saved in the 20th century by the musicologist Norbert Dufourcq, who made it his residence and restored it, it has been listed as a historic monument since 1963 and remains private property.