Saint-Melaine Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Saint-Melaine Castle stands on the left bank of the Mayenne river in Laval (Mayenne), about 1.2 km from the town centre along the former Le Mans road. The site is ancient: it was associated with the parish church of Saint-Melaine, the first religious nucleus of Laval's left bank, later attached to Saint-Vénérand and then demolished. The neighbouring slopes once bore renowned vineyards, which the chronicler Guillaume Le Doyen praised in the sixteenth century. In the nineteenth century, the estate was brought together by Anselme Lebreton, a carrier and haulage contractor, who in 1833 bought out the shares of the Geslot family. The park retains a mock ruin with a pointed-arch doorway recalling the former building. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, a German reconnaissance patrol pushed as far as Saint-Melaine before being driven back; a monument erected by the Souvenir français marks this furthest point of the invasion.