History of the castle
From TOURS – Château de Tours – official website
On the remains of wooden buildings, themselves built on the remains of Gallo-Roman baths, the Chateau de Tour’s first stones are laid in the eleventh century by order of the Counts of Anjou, relying on some vestiges of the Roman wall that surrounded Caesarodunum, the Roman settlement here.
The location is strategic. Just in front of the only bridge that allows passage north of the Loire, and bordering the city, the building is probably an entry point for men and goods while being a few steps from the cathedral.
The castle is mainly used as a residence, but things change in the thirteenth century. It must be said that France takes shape, and Philippe-Auguste includes Touraine in this great kingdom. The castle of Tours is then enlarged to become a real defensive fortress, perhaps to resist a possible English attack, or simply to impose a little more, in the face of the growing importance of Chateauneuf and St. Martin’s Basilica.
A drawbridge gives access to the castle with its large square tower of the eleventh century, and four towers including the tower of Guise which is a dungeon with a wall thirty meters high and three metres thick, surrounding not only the inhabited building but also the chapel and a large courtyard.
The estate extends further, with new homes, a barnyard, a stable. Kings go there, the future Louis XI is married there, but in the Renaissance the competition is tough against the new castles at the edge of the water. As the defensive role decreases and in the seventeenth century the Wilson Bridge is constructed, the role of the chateau changes, serving in turn as arsenal, begging depot, military barracks, and even stone quarry to build the river’s docks!
Today there remains only the Logis of Governors, which served for meetings of city officials, and the tower of medieval Guise leaning against the flag of Mars built in the eighteenth century.