Things to see in Laval

Laval grew beside a crossing of the Mayenne, close to the historic regions of Normandy and Anjou. Founded in the eleventh century on the site of an earlier Roman ford, the town developed around its castle. The river, fortress and medieval streets still provide its clearest points of orientation.

Much of the older quarter survives around the Vieux-Château, with timber-framed houses, sections of wall, historic churches and the Pont-Vieux. Laval has also received the French Ministry of Culture’s Ville d’Art et d’Histoire designation in recognition of this heritage.

Two castles above the Mayenne

Guy I of Laval built the Vieux-Château in the eleventh century, although repeated alterations have left evidence from several periods. A cylindrical stone keep was added in the thirteenth century; its timber roof is arranged around a central rosette with radiating beams. Renaissance windows and dormers were introduced to the main residential range in the sixteenth century.

The castle contains the Musée d’Art Naïf, which pays particular attention to Laval-born Henri Rousseau, known as Le Douanier Rousseau. A reconstruction of his studio accompanies three of his works, while other artists represented include Henri Trouillard, Camille Bombois and Jules Lefranc. Further rooms cover fine art, including nineteenth-century academic painting, medieval sculpture and religious objects.

The neighbouring Château-Neuf was begun in 1508 for Guy VI, who considered the old fortress too austere. Its original Renaissance ground floor gained another storey and roof space in 1540. Hardy de Lévaré, then mayor of Laval, added the gateway enclosing the main courtyard in the eighteenth century. The building later served as a tribunal during the Revolution and as a law court in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Walls, lanes and the old bridge

Laval’s defensive walls were built in the thirteenth century and modified in the fifteenth. They once ran for more than 1,100 metres, with carriage gates, smaller postern gates and 27 towers. Surviving elements include the northern wall, Tour Renaise, the Anne Allègre walk and Porte Beucheresse. The fourteenth-century gate has two towers; Le Douanier Rousseau was born in the one on the right.

Grand-Rue was the medieval quarter’s main thoroughfare. Timber-framed, jettied houses stand alongside later stone residences with Renaissance decoration. Down by the river, the hump-backed Pont-Vieux dates from the twelfth or thirteenth century and was built near the Gallo-Roman ford. Houses once occupied the bridge, and a fortified gate guarded its approach. German forces destroyed the bridge as they left Laval on 8 August 1944; three of its original arches remain visible, with part of a fourth near Venelle Noire.

The left-bank quays provide a useful view back towards the old town, with the castle and riverside buildings arranged above the Mayenne.

Church architecture

Notre-Dame-des-Cordeliers was built for Franciscan friars from the late fourteenth to the early fifteenth century. Its interior includes eleven stained-glass windows and seven altarpieces by the Laval architect Pierre Corbineau. The Cathédrale Notre-Dame de la Trinité, made a cathedral in 1855, is more visibly layered. The lower nave belongs to the original eleventh-century church, with Angevin rib vaults; tapestries tell the story of Judith and Holofernes, and sixteenth-century statues occupy the north transept portal.

The twelfth-century Basilique Notre-Dame d’Avesnières is Romanesque, though its rib vaults and the spire later added to the bell tower anticipate Gothic forms. Its apse, carved capitals and wooden figure of Christ are among its principal details. Église Saint-Vénérand began in the late fourteenth century at the request of wealthy cloth merchants. A Flamboyant Gothic lower portal gives way to Renaissance work in the upper portal and the coffered choir vault.

Gardens and Roman remains

Jardin de la Perrine combines rose beds and flower borders with cascades, pools and terraces overlooking the surrounding area. It also contains the boat of Laval-born sailor Alain Gerbault, as well as the Musée-école, devoted to practical encounters with art, and a science museum.

At nearby Entrammes, Gallo-Roman baths discovered in 1987 retain unusually substantial masonry. Roman walls rise to 8.5 metres and include brick-framed arches and windows. Four bathing rooms are arranged in sequence, making the site a useful counterpart to Laval’s medieval monuments.