Forêterie Castle: A Neo-Renaissance Residence in Allonnes, France
Site at a Glance
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Modern
- Eras represented
- Modern
- Civilizations
- French
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Castle
On this page7 sections
History
Forêterie Castle is a Neo-Renaissance residence in Allonnes, France, built for investment banker Gustave Avice between 1895 and 1897. Avice acquired the estate in the region from which his family came and made the château their permanent home.
Avice’s residence
Avice commissioned his friend Georges Darcy, chief architect of the Historic Monuments, a specialist architect working in the conservation of historic buildings, to design and oversee the new château in place of an existing building. Avice served as mayor of Allonnes from 1899 until his death in 1913.
Until the summer of 1941, the château remained the Avice family’s home and a holiday retreat. It also hosted cultural gatherings, including visits by the painter Cormon and the engraver Le Couteux, who died at the château.
Wartime occupation and destruction
German forces requisitioned the property at the end of 1941, occupying the château and its outbuildings in several periods with different units. A German general used the château as his headquarters in 1942, and German Tiger heavy tanks were parked on the property in 1944.
American bombing struck the estate in March 1944 because it lay near strategic targets across the Sarthe, including Le Mans’s railway marshalling yard and a Renault factory. The château itself escaped the bombing. During the night of 8–9 August 1944, a unit of Das Reich, a division of the Waffen-SS, Nazi Germany’s military branch of the SS, set fire to the building. The blaze began on the first floor, ravaged the interior, and destroyed the roof.
Abandonment and restoration
The château remained abandoned for about 70 years. Rain entering through the burned roof accelerated its deterioration, while vegetation gradually grew over the building.
In the early 2000s, Avice’s great-grandson François began a major restoration with architect Niclas Dünnebacke and Nicolas Gautier, a state architect involved in protecting historic buildings and advising on work affecting them. The first major phase, from 2016 to 2018, focused on making the building watertight. A further phase began in 2019 to protect it from the weather. The Friends of Château de la Forêterie Association was founded in 2016 to support the château’s rehabilitation and cultural activities.
Remains
The property includes the Neo-Renaissance château, estate outbuildings, and surrounding woods. Boulevard Nature runs below the grounds beside the Sarthe.
The château
The August 1944 fire left the building without its roof and badly damaged its interior. Restoration cleared vegetation and secured the property. In autumn 2018, workers installed a new wooden roof frame made to follow the original design. Work begun in 2019 restored or replaced the stone surrounds of the openings according to their condition and fitted frames and carpentry at each opening, helping shield the building from the elements.
Outbuildings and grounds
Several outbuildings were destroyed or severely damaged in the March 1944 bombing. Numerous craters remained in the surrounding woods.
