Ferme de Vaux
MonumentHidden Treasure
Ferme de Vaux, located in Daumeray (Maine-et-Loire), is a Renaissance château built in the 16th century. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Period
- Renaissance (16th century)
- Location
- Daumeray, Maine-et-Loire, Pays de la Loire
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 47.6898, -0.3554
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00109426
Nestling in the Anjou bocage, the Vaux farm in Daumeray reveals seven centuries of rural heritage: a remarkable medieval ensemble where the dwellings, outbuildings and dovecote bear witness to the landowning power of the Loire.
History
In the heart of the Maine-et-Loire region, a few leagues from Durtal and the Loir valley, Vaux farm is one of the fortified farms that discreetly dot the Anjou landscape. Listed as a Historic Monument since 1990, it offers the attentive visitor a rare architectural experience: that of a rural farm that has survived the Middle Ages, the Hundred Years' War and the Renaissance without ever losing its original character. What makes Vaux truly unique is the legible superimposition of its construction phases. Where other old farms have been radically altered, this one has kept its medieval volumes intact: twelfth-century masonry rubs shoulders with eighteenth-century additions, forming an architectural palimpsest of astonishing coherence. The main dwelling, the farm outbuildings and the remains of the surrounding walls form a seigniorial microcosm frozen in time. The visit is like an open-air archaeological exploration. You can wander between the tufa and local limestone walls, look up at the ancestral frameworks, and make out the traces and scars of history under the plaster. The bocage setting reinforces this impression of timeless isolation: thick hedges, avenues of oak trees and the damp meadows at the bottom of the valley surround the whole property in an unspoilt green setting. Far from the all-too-common châteaux of the Loire, Vaux Farm is for lovers of vernacular architecture, rural historians and anyone looking for the authenticity that the big tourist sites can no longer offer. It's a monument for the curious, those who know that history can be read just as much in a 13th-century barn as in the gallery of a royal palace.
Architecture
The architecture of Vaux Farm is in keeping with the great tradition of medieval seigneurial farms in the Lower Maine and northern Anjou regions. The main dwelling, built of limestone and tuffeau rubble - the soft, luminous stone characteristic of the Loire Valley - has an elongated floor plan typical of 13th-century rural dwellings: a barrel-vaulted lower hall on the ground floor, living rooms on the first floor lit by mullioned windows, some of which still retain their medieval stonework. The roof, probably made of Anjou slate in accordance with the prevailing practice in the region, crowns the ensemble with a bluish-grey colour that is characteristic of the Loire landscape. The farm outbuildings - barns, stables and cowsheds - are laid out around an enclosed courtyard in a U-shaped or quadrangular layout that is partially enclosed, a defensive configuration inherited from the High Middle Ages. The very thick eaves walls of these outbuildings are built of local limestone in regular courses, reinforced at the corners with ashlar chains. A possible footed dovecote, a sign of seigneurial rights, may still stand in the corner of the courtyard - towers with flight niches being a systematic marker of noble status in the region in the 14th century. The 18th-century additions are distinguished by their carefully carved white limestone bay frames, modillioned cornices and more rational proportions, contrasting harmoniously with the medieval roughness of the old buildings. Together, they form a coherent testimony to the architectural evolution of a farming estate over seven centuries.
Related Figures
Seigneurs locaux angevins des XIIe-XIIIe siècles, fondateurs présumés du domaine de VauxMoines ou chanoines gestionnaires d'une éventuelle grange monastique médiévaleFamille noble du bas-Maine, propriétaires aux XVe-XVIe siècles lors de la reconstruction post-guerre de Cent AnsPropriétaire réformateur du XVIIIe siècle, instigateur de la campagne de modernisation des communsInspecteur des Monuments Historiques ayant instruit le dossier d'inscription en 1990
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Ferme de Vaux located?
Ferme de Vaux is located in Daumeray, Maine-et-Loire department, Pays de la Loire region, France.
When was Ferme de Vaux built?
Ferme de Vaux dates back to a period built during the Renaissance (16th century).
Is Ferme de Vaux open to visitors?
Ferme de Vaux is currently closed to visitors.