Château de Caratel

The Château de Caratel is a historic manor located in the commune of Louisfert, in the Loire-Atlantique department of the Pays de la Loire region in western France, in the valley of the same name.

The estate was the main seigneurial residence of Louisfert. The present buildings form a homogeneous architectural ensemble whose construction was largely completed in the 17th century. The land was ennobled by Louis XIV in 1659. The château was rebuilt in the 17th century on earlier foundations (elements dating from the 15th–16th centuries are mentioned). It features high roofs, a main façade flanked by two pavilions, a courtyard of honour, a chapel dedicated to Sainte-Catherine, and a guards’ pavilion together with various outbuildings. Local tradition speaks of two “towers of love” and of an underground passage that once linked Caratel to the older seigneurie of Beauregard.

In the 19th century the property belonged for a time to the English industrialist family Thornton (William Thornton is recorded as owner around 1830).

The façades and roofs of the château, the chapel and the outbuildings, as well as the painted beam ceilings, were inscribed as a Monument historique on 19 December 1985. The château remains private property; it is occasionally opened for visits, notably during the European Heritage Days.