Manor of Launay

The Manoir de Launay is the favorite residence of King René where the legendary tournament of the "Joyeuse Garde" was organized in 1446. The monument perfectly illustrates the transition from defensive architecture to Renaissance pleasure architecture.

After three years spent in his kingdom of Naples (1435-1442), the "Good King René", Duke of Anjou, acquired this Manor from the end of the fourteenth century, in 1444. Enlargement and embellishment made Launay for René and Isabelle of Lorraine, his first wife, then Jeanne de Laval, his second wife, a favorite residence where the legendary tournament of the "Joyeuse Garde" is organized.
This pivotal period of the end of the Middle Ages is visible in its architecture, where moats and turrets are only symbolic and not defensive. René introduced the spirit of the Renaissance early on in his Italian way of life where aesthetic pleasure and a taste for nature prevailed over court life.
Chapel, apartments of the lords, gallery, retreat rooms, "dovecote", kitchen, main courtyard and lower courtyard with colonnades have kept their integrity from the XNUMXth/XNUMXth century.
On the death of René in 1480, Launay became the property of Louis XI, then of his son Charles VIII, finally of Louis XII, later to a Claude de Bretagne.
Exhibitions: "Tools, Worker Poetry" on wood, iron and stone, collection of tools from 2 to 3 centuries, collection of busts by the talented Yann Grégoire.