Château de la Baronnière, National heritage castle in Mauges-sur-Loire, France

The Château de la Baronnière stands at La Chapelle-Saint-Florent in Maine-et-Loire, on a site whose oldest records date to the 15th century. The present building is a 19th-century castle with a pale cream-and-grey stone facade, rows of rectangular windows with white surrounds, and tall round towers capped by steep dark conical roofs and small spires. A taller square tower rises to the right, and a colonnaded turret projects from the central round tower. A lawn and a low wooden post-and-rail fence skirt the base.

An original Renaissance castle was destroyed in 1793 by Republican troops, leaving only a square tower standing. Afterward, Jean-Joseph Arnous-Rivière purchased the estate in 1801 and rebuilt it during the 1850s.

The name Bonchamps runs through the estate: in 1636 Marie Chévrier, heir of Jacques de La Roche, married René de Bonchamps, and their descendant Charles de Bonchamps led the Vendée insurgents from here in 1793. His wife, Marie Renée Marguerite de Scépeaux, stayed at La Baronnière while pregnant, distributing cockades and embroidering the fleur-de-lis flag.

The château stands in the Èvre valley at La Chapelle-Saint-Florent, in Maine-et-Loire. The 19th-century building is private and belongs to the descendants of Jean-Joseph Arnous-Rivière, who bought the estate in 1801, so it is not open as a regular visitor attraction. The grounds are reached from the surrounding lanes of the Mauges countryside.

The 1554 fishpond built by Florent Froger, downstream of the old castle, was fed by the Èvre through a sluice and stocked fish for the large fishing parties Bonchamps organised. Two iron gates once opened from the terraced kitchen garden onto the river.