Mayenne

Mayenne
Department
Prefecture building of the Mayenne department, in Laval
Coat of arms
Location of Mayenne in France
Coordinates: 48°10′N 0°40′E / 48.167°N 0.667°E / 48.167; 0.667Coordinates: 48°10′N 0°40′E / 48.167°N 0.667°E / 48.167; 0.667
Country	France
Region	Pays de la Loire
Prefecture	Laval
Subprefectures	Château-Gontier Mayenne
Government
• President of the General Council	Jean Arthuis
Area
• Total	5,175 km2 (1,998 sq mi)
Population (2013)
• Total	307,500
• Rank	74th
• Density	59/km2 (150/sq mi)
Demonym(s)	Mayennais, Mayennaise
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Department number	53
Arrondissements	3
Cantons	17
Communes	258
^1 French Land Register data, which exclude estuaries, and lakes, ponds, and glaciers larger than 1 km2

Mayenne (French pronunciation: ​[majɛn]) is a department in northwest France named after the Mayenne River. Mayenne is part of the current region of Pays de la Loire and is surrounded by the departments of Manche, Orne, Sarthe, Maine-et-Loire, and Ille-et-Vilaine.

Mayenne is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790. The northern two thirds correspond to the western part of the former province of Maine. The southern third of Mayenne corresponds to the northern portion of the old province of Anjou. The inhabitants of the department are called Mayennais.

Like 82 other departments, Mayenne was created on March 4, 1790 during the early stages of the French Revolution by order of the National Constituent Assembly. The new departments were to be uniformly administered and approximately equal to one another in size and population. The former province of Maine was partitioned into two, Upper Maine, centred on Le Mans, became the new department of Sarthe, and Lower Maine, centred on Laval became the new department of Mayenne. Anjou, to the south, being too big to form a single department, was reduced in size and became Maine-et-Loire. In this partition, Sarthe received the region of La Flèche, and Mayenne received Château-Gontier and Craon. Flax was a feature of the Mayenne economy, and the southern limit for the cultivation of flax was used to determine the new border between Mayenne and Maine-et-Loire.