En un regard
Le château en bref
In the south-west of the Mayenne, near Craon, the Château de l'Ansaudière stands in the commune of Saint-Martin-du-Limet. In the sixteenth century, the estate belonged to the Mauviel family; it was bought in 1754 by Jean Cournée de La Noë. In the nineteenth century, François de La Porte radically remodelled the house and created a park of about twelve hectares in 1827; his descendants still own it. The complex consists of two building blocks. The older is a rectangular main house topped with tall roofs. The second, set at right angles, is flanked by round towers, and a square tower marks the junction between the two wings; the façade is embellished with small turrets that reflect the neo-Gothic taste of the nineteenth century. A sixteenth-century chapel completes the estate. The château is privately owned and not open to visitors, but its gardens are reportedly accessible by appointment.