Château de Laval (Vieux-Château)

Laval

Overlooking the Mayenne from a rocky spur in the heart of the town, the Vieux-Château of Laval owes its foundation to Guy I de Laval, who built here in the early 11th century a circular keep counted today among the oldest still standing in France. Around this austere Romanesque core, the lords of Laval, one of the most powerful feudal families of Maine and Anjou, raised over the centuries lodgings and wings that softened the severity of the first fortress, up to the Renaissance rebuilding undertaken by the counts of Laval in the 15th and 16th centuries. A stronghold fought over during the Wars of Religion and then during the Wars of the Vendée, the château gradually lost its military role to become in turn a prison, a barracks and a depot before its restoration in the 20th century. It now houses Laval's museum of naive and outsider art, one of the few French museums devoted to this movement, whose collections converse with the medieval and Renaissance architecture of the rooms. From the top of the keep, the view takes in old Laval, its half-timbered houses and the Pont Vieux spanning the river — the best starting point for understanding a thousand years of the town's history.

Getting there : Free access to the surroundings; the museum housed in the château can be visited during opening hours, in the town centre of Laval, on the right bank of the Mayenne, near the Pont Vieux

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound