Guided tours in Vitré

Guided tour " Glazed over the water »

At all times, water played a vital role, essential in human life. She is source of life, it purifies, it protects, separates and nourishes.

The villain, who crosses three departments, was the object of all attention. She was channeled thanks to the preparatory work of Leonardo da Vinci and received on its banks many mills to which have been added, throughout its history, abbeys and castles.

Vitré still retains traces of this equipment, whether on the river or in the city with the incoming gutters, roof cores, well, castle ovens, fountains and laundries which punctuate the city, Gargoyles of the Notre-Dame church and the baptismal font.

^{© Vitré Community – ADT35 – Thibault Poriel}

Thematic visit, “Vitré, a fortified city in the Marches de Brittany »

This visit will allow you to discover the art of living in the 15th century^rd century.

You will thus evolve court of the barons of Vitré, between the need to protect your life and the still new desire to make it pleasant.

Construction of the Madeleine Tower to arrange his private apartments there, creation of ovens and latrines, installation ofimposing fireplaces and creation of a neat sculpted decor, Jeanne de Laval-Châtillon gradually transformed the Vitrean fortress in a comfortable residence, setting for a luxurious life, at the turn of the XIV^rd and XV^rd centuries.

^{©crtb/Noë C.Photography}

Thematic visit, « Vitré, cradle of the Renaissance in Brittany »

In 1501, Nicolas de Laval becomes Baron de Vitré, under the name of Guy XVI.

Close to Louis XII whom he accompanied during the Italian campaigns, then to Francis 1^er, he is very early familiar with Renaissance art.
Husband in third marriage, of Antoinette de Daillon, Lady of Lude, it is also influenced by the latter which contributes to develop her husband's taste for the Renaissance style. It is moreover during this union, between 1526 and 1531 that Guy XVI had built, at the Château de Vitré, the apse of the Oratory who could be the first Renaissance building in Brittany.

At the court of Guy XVI, the nobility and bourgeoisie from the Pays de Vitré discover this new art came from Italy and put into practice this style imbued with humanism.

^{© Noë C. Photography – CRT Bretagne}

Thematic visit, « 18th century residences^rd century, balconies and artistic ironwork »

Since last quarter of the 17th century^rd century, the Vitrean city is experiencing a period of economic downturn linked to the fall in the canvas trade and the flight of rich Vitrean Protestants.
In this difficult situation, the families of the Vitrean bourgeoisie, whose fortunes however diminished, cannot build new homes. So they are constrained to adapt old half-timbered houses to the refinement of the architecture and way of life of the reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI.

While old facades are decorated with balconies and railings with beautiful arabesques and while it is not uncommon for a delicate paneling decoration to be hidden behind the medieval silhouette of a house in the walled town, two large residences built in the purest classical style bear witness to the maintenance of aristocratic fortunes: the Hôtel des Nétumières and the Château de la Baratière.

^{Half-timbered house ©crtb_Noë C-Photography}

Thematic visit, “ Vitré, from the cemetery to the Saint-Martin church »

In the center of the cemetery, a veritable book of Vitrean history, tower of Old Saint-Martin is the only vestige of the old church, erected in 1437, in a branch of Notre-Dame parish.

Discover this amazing site with the guide-lecturer who, through Faubourg Saint-Martin, will take you to the new and large church of the same name, whose project led by the architects Mellet, was the most ambitious in the diocese, 1868 to 1893.

^{© Photo Plus Maignan}