13 Sights in Le Mans, France (with Map and Images)

The Hôtel de Vignolles is located in Old Mans, Place Saint-Pierre. It was built in 1549 by Jean de Vignolles. The hotel was never finished. Its architecture is of a local Gothic style. Its traffic axis is resolutely vertical due to its transition architecture. The hotel is part of a particular position in the city, bringing a revival to the traditional party of the 15th century. The hotel is widely marked by the stately architecture of Haut-Maine, however. However, it attests to similarities in the roots of rural and urban stately residences. If its construction is not, by definition, luxurious; Its spreading on the ground is monumental compared to the other hotels built mainly in height, within the Old Mans. Its particular architecture situates it halfway between Parisian architecture and Loire architecture, such as the position of the city and its natural attractions on the map of France. There is no doubt that Vignolles was particularly attentive to the effect produced on the visitor. First, he wanted to bring more Parisianism to Le Mans with its external architecture. Then he took into account the visitor's approach. The goal was certainly to impress, flatter and dominate all the fine flower of regional Protestantism and in particular Saumur Protestantism. The Hôtel de Vignolles is the typical example of the National Hotel National which will be built in Paris as elsewhere in France until the middle of the 17th century. Property of the city of Le Mans since 1926, the hotel is partially classified as historic monuments in 1946. Even today, the restorations continue, a division in two of the hotel in 1799 having deeply marked or even disfigured its original beauty .

Wikipedia: Hôtel de Vignolles (FR)

The Palais du Grabatoire is the current episcopal residence of the Bishop of Le Mans. It is an old canonical palace built in the first half of the sixteenth century for Jean de Couthardy. The palace is located in the district of the Cité Plantagenêt, the historic heart of Le Mans. The building faces the west door of St. Julian's Cathedral, Place du Cardinal Grente. Its name has commonly been reduced to Grabatoire or the Hotel du Grabatoire. Its surface is of an unusual size. Very few documents, books or magazines have traced the history of the building. It is one of the most unknown monuments in the city. The Grabatoire has been listed as a historical monument since 1927.

Wikipedia: Palais du Grabatoire (FR)

The collegiate church of Saint-Pierre-la-Cour is a former collegiate church located in the city of Le Mans. This is the former church dedicated to the Counts of Maine whose palace was adjacent. Located southwest of the old town, the collegiate church is now used for various cultural events. It is considered one of the five municipal museums. The house of the municipal school of drawing is the subject of a classification as historical monuments by the list of 1862 and finally the collegiate church of Saint-Pierre-la-Cour is classified in 1889.

Wikipedia: Collégiale Saint-Pierre-la-Cour (FR)

The Church of Saint-Lazare is a religious building located in the city of Le Mans, in the heart of the Saint-Georges district. It was built in 1892 in a district suffering the full force of the industrial boom of the city. The district was a former suburb, its economic activity was focused on cheesecloth in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. At the end of the nineteenth century, it was the gas factories and the tobacco factory that employed many workers. Basically, the district is split in two between Saint-Lazare and Saint-Georges.

Wikipedia: Église Saint-Lazare du Mans (FR)

The Wright brothers, Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright, were American aviation pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flying the world's first successful motor-operated airplane. They made the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft with the Wright Flyer on December 17, 1903, 4 mi (6 km) south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, at what is now known as Kill Devil Hills. The brothers were also the first to invent aircraft controls that made fixed-wing powered flight possible.

Wikipedia: Wright brothers (EN)

The Etoc-Demazy Hospital is a historic psychiatric hospital in the city of Le Mans, opened in 1828 located in the Novaxis district. It was closed in 2011 in order to be transferred to the hospital in Allonnes, located in the Mancelle agglomeration. The buildings have historical importance for the city, a study was undertaken by the Ministry of Culture for the Mérimée base, then cancelled. The Etoc-Demazy hospital has been classified as a historical monument since 2001.

Wikipedia: Hôpital Etoc-Demazy (FR)

The enclosure of Le Mans, formerly Vindinum or Vindunum, capital of the Gallic people of the Aulerques Cénomans, was built at the end of the third century or the beginning of the fourth century. It is very well preserved for about 500 meters and has very beautiful geometric ornamentations made with the polychrome materials of its construction. It has been classified as a historical monument since 1862 and has been a UNESCO World Heritage candidate since 2018.

Wikipedia: Enceinte romaine du Mans (FR)

The Museum of Archaeology and History of Maine, or officially Jean-Claude-Boulard Carré Plantagenet Museum, is a museum located in the city of Le Mans, in the Saint-Nicolas district, near the central sector. Completely restored and refurbished by architect Bernard Althabegoity, it was officially inaugurated on June 19, 2009 and was opened to the public the following day.

Wikipedia: Musée d'archéologie et d'histoire du Mans (FR), Website

Le Mans Cathedral is a Catholic church situated in Le Mans, France. The cathedral is dedicated to Saint Julian of Le Mans, the city's first bishop, who established Christianity in the area around the beginning of the 4th century. Its construction dated from the 6th through the 14th century, and it features many French Gothic elements.

Wikipedia: Le Mans Cathedral (EN)

The Musée des 24 Heures du Mans, created in 1961 under the name "Musée automobile de la Sarthe", then renamed "Musée des 24 Heures - Circuit de la Sarthe" in 2009, is a French museum dedicated to motor racing located near the main entrance of the 24 Hours circuit in Le Mans.

Wikipedia: Musée automobile de la Sarthe (FR)

The Musée de Tessé is the fine arts museum of the city of Le Mans in France. It offers many guided tours on various themes and is located on the fringes of the natural setting of the quinconces des Jacobins and the park of Tessé.

Wikipedia: Musée de Tessé (FR), Website

Philippe François Marie Leclerc de Hauteclocque was a Free-French general during the Second World War. He became Marshal of France posthumously in 1952, and is known in France simply as le maréchal Leclerc or just Leclerc.

Wikipedia: Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque (EN)

Paul Henri Benjamin Balluet d'Estournelles de Constant, Baron de Constant de Rebecque, was a French diplomat and politician, advocate of international arbitration and winner of the 1909 Nobel Prize for Peace.

Wikipedia: Paul Henri Balluet d'Estournelles de Constant (EN)