CHÂTEAU-GONTIER, a town of France, at the head of an arrondissement in the department of Mayenne, on the right bank of the Mayenne river, here crossed by a stone bridge, 17 miles S.S.E. of Laval. It has a fine Gothic church, a communal college, three hospitals, an agricultural society, public baths, extensive bleach fields, and manufactures of linen and woollen stuffs. It is also the entrepôt of a great part of the trade of the department in wine, slate, iron, and coal. Château-Gontier owes its origin and its name to a castle erected in 1037 by Gunther, the steward of Fulques Nerra of Anjou, on the site of a farm belonging to the monks of St Aubin d’Angers. On the extinction of the family, the lordship was assigned by Louis XI. to Philippe de Comines. The town suffered severely during the wars of the League, and in the Vendean struggle it was the scene of sanguinary proceedings. Population in 1872, 7048. λ