About Castle Vitré
Castle of the Vitré barons
(13th-15th cent.)
The choice of baron Robert 1st to build the castle on this site, a rocky shale outcrop looking over the Vilaine to the north, was made around 1060. During the first half of the 13th century, the baron André III built a castle in its current triangular form: a fortified enclosure of towers connected by courtines (defensive walls).
In the late 14th and early 15th century, Guy XII and his spouse Jeanne de Laval Châtillon made numerous transformations: elevation of the entrance châtelet, a genuine seigniorial porch dwelling; complete revision of the Saint-Laurent tower, with a complex underground defensive system; Madeleine tower.
The forecourt of the castle and the seigniorial collegiate church, now disappeared, are known because of a plan of the royal architect Dehuz, dating from before 1738. At this time the forecourt was closed off by the stables to the east, the coach houses to the south, and the Madeleine collegiate church to the north. This church was directly linked to the Madeleine tower by a wooden footbridge spanning the moat.
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