Château de la Courbe de Brée, Medieval castle in Brée, France.

Château de la Courbe de Brée stands 2 km from Brée in Mayenne, on the road to Saint-Christophe-du-Luat. Its buildings grew in stages: a 13th-century great hall with a monumental fireplace, a 14th-century old lodging, a chapel and a gloriette tower from the later 15th century, and a late 16th-century enclosure wall with four towers. A tall square tower of rough grey-brown stone rises beside a planted garden, its parapet pierced with small openings; a lower wall with a round-arched gateway joins it.

The castle first appears in records during the 13th century under the Le Vayer family's ownership. Over the following centuries, the complex was expanded and upgraded repeatedly, with new residential spaces and military structures added across different phases.

The name La Courbe is not explained by the sources, which never mention a river bend; the seigneurie passed from the Le Vayer family to the de Vassé around 1380 when Perrette Le Vayer married Jean de Vassé. The seigneur held high, middle and low justice over most of the parish, and the land included two hundred arpents of heath in the Charnie woods at Livet and Saint-Christophe-du-Luat.

The site is clearly visible from the approach roads, and the grounds are walkable on foot around the perimeter. Wear sturdy shoes as the terrain can be uneven and parts of the property sit on a slight rise.

Two carved medallions decorate the south gable wall of the 13th-century great hall. The left one shows a tigress seeing her reflection in a mirror and mistaking it for her cub; the right shows a rider carrying a young tiger in his left arm and holding a mirror in his right hand.