Château de la Fautraise

En un regard

Le château en bref

Château de la Fautraise is a building located in the commune of Bierné-les-Villages, in Argenton-Notre-Dame, Mayenne. Shown on the Cassini map (as “château de la Fautraize”), it was a fief mouvant of Romfort. It was rebuilt around 1750 by René-Louis-François Chailland, curé of Argenton from 1731 to 1768 and lord of la Fautraise, who lived there and had a vicar in the bourg. The chapel attached to it, whose preservation was requested in Year XII, still existed in 1824. It has since been replaced by a chapel in the Ogival style. In 1863, M. Emile de Beaumont bought the château and had it restored. The residence is a modern building; its central pavilion has a pyramidal roof crowned with a lantern. According to the historian Émile Queruau-Lamerie (1841–1929), as repeated by the Abbé Angot, it was in this residence that Marin-Pierre Gaullier, a royalist colonel, laid down the arms of his division, which numbered 2,400 men. He handed them over to General Henri-Pierre Delaage, who came from Château-Gontier to negotiate with him in 1796. However, according to the Mémoires de Bernard de la Frégeolière, this disarmament took place at the château de Beaumont in Saint-Laurent-des-Mortiers, about 4 km from the château de la Fautraise; “on a fireplace in the great hall of the old château (de Beaumont), notes the Abbé Angot, one can still see carved fleurs-de-lis.” In 1796, this residence belonged to Henri-Gabriel-Germain de Villoutreys de Brignac and his wife, Marie-Henriette-Thérèse de la Forêt d'Armaillé. It should also be noted that the château de la Fautraise was not acquired by M. de Beaumont until 1863, and his name may be the source of the confusion.