The Château de Sablé is an historic castle in

Sablé-sur-Sarthe Sablé-sur-Sarthe (, literally ''Sablé on Sarthe''), commonly referred to as Sablé, is a commune in the Sarthe department, in the Pays de la Loire region, western France. It is about 40 km southwest of Le Mans and about 50 km northea ...

Sarthe Sarthe () is a department of the French region of Pays de la Loire, and the province of Maine, situated in the '' Grand-Ouest'' of the country. It is named after the river Sarthe, which flows from east of Le Mans to just north of Angers. It ha ...

Pays de la Loire Pays de la Loire (; but can also mean 'Lower Loire') is one of the eighteen administrative regions of France, located on the country's Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. It was created in the 1950s to serve as a zone of influence for its capital an ...

, France.

History

The castle was built from 1717 to 1750 to the design of architect Claude Desgots for

Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Marquess of Torcy Jean Baptiste Colbert, Marquis of Torcy (14 September 1665 – 2 September 1746), generally called Colbert de Torcy, was a French diplomat, who negotiated some of the most important treaties towards the end of Louis XIV of France, Louis XIV's r ...

.Le Château de Sablé

University of Maine The University of Maine (UMaine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Orono, Maine, United States. It was established in 1865 as the land-grant college of Maine and is the Flagship universitie ...

Its grounds are bordered by the

Vaige The Vaige () is a long river in the Mayenne and Sarthe departments in western France. This list is ordered from source to mouth: *In Mayenne, the Vaige has its source in Saint-Léger then waters the following villages: Vaiges, Saint-Georges- ...

river. By the 19th century, it belonged to the

Duke of Chaulnes The title of Duke of Chaulnes (), a French peerage, is held by the d'Albert family beginning in 1621. History First creation (1621–1698) The duchy of Chaulnes was established by letters patent in January 1621 and registered on 6 March 1621 a ...

. It was a

chicory Common chicory (''Cichorium intybus'') is a somewhat woody, perennial herbaceous plant of the family Asteraceae, usually with bright blue flowers, rarely white or pink. Native to Europe, it has been introduced to the Americas and Australia. M ...

factory from 1919 to 1960. It was acquired by the city of Sablé-sur-Sarthe in 1960. Since 1979, it has been home to the ''Centre technique de conservation Joël-le-Theule'' of the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

, named in honour of local politician Joël Le Theule.Bibliothèque nationale de France: Le Centre technique de conservation Joël-le-Theule (Sablé-sur-Sarthe)

Architectural significance

It has been listed as an official monument since 1983.

References

Châteaux in Sarthe Monuments historiques of Sarthe Houses completed in 1750 {{France-castle-stub