Châteaubriant

Châteaubriant stands on the eastern marches of Brittany, where a castle and town guarded the roads toward Anjou and Maine. Its medieval fortifications reflected the importance of a frontier contested by the dukes of Brittany and the kings of France. Within the walls, later residential buildings displayed the wealth of the lords who held this strategic place.

In April 1488 a French royal army besieged and took Châteaubriant during the war against Duke Francis II of Brittany. The castle was damaged in the assault, but the family of Laval later rebuilt and embellished it. Jean de Laval and his wife Françoise de Foix created a residence suited to the Renaissance court; Françoise herself became a favourite of Francis I. The castle's changing form records the transition from frontier warfare to noble life within the French kingdom.