Château de Tours

Visuel Château de Tours

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.

Google Maps – Château de Tours

Château de Chenonceau

March 9, 2018March 29, 2018

Château de Chenonceau’s history is significant for the actions of a string of women who have lived here. Its architectural and garden features stand as monuments to the lives of these great women. Beginning as is often the case as a fortress, this site evolved from the 11th century to become a residential building with a sense of luxury and particularly, femininity that we don’t always see in the Châteaux of the Loire Valley. It is the second most visited château in France after Versailles.

Read the History ..

Chambord

The Château’s Surroundings in the 16th Century

The following content was retrieved in its entirety from https://www.chambord.org/fr/histoire/ 10/11/2017.

Francis I’s primary concern when Chambord was constructed was taming the Cosson, the river that crosses the estate from east to west. The Cosson’s meandering waters created a hostile, marshy environment around the château that “in no way echoed the magnificence of the château” (Jacques Androuet du Cerceau, 1576). The king considered regulating the flow of the river across the entire estate and diverting some of the water from the Loire, just a few miles away from the site, to the château. These projects, however, never came to pass. There is therefore no [known] project for creating a Renaissance garden at Chambord during the time of Francis I. However, illustrations show the existence of a small garden enclosed with a palisade close to the monument off the Chapel wing. It was likely an erstwhile vegetable garden, belonging to the former château of the Counts of Blois or an old priory. Finally, a 17^th-century diagram shows traces of a previous, larger garden on the northeast side whose design and purpose are difficult to determine.

The Major Projects of the 17th Century

It was not until the reign of Louis XIV that major projects were undertaken to landscape the areas around the château.

The Sun King ordered the planting of French formal gardens in front of the building’s grand facade. Two projects were proposed to the king by Jules Hardouin-Mansart and his agency. One presented a half-hexagon-shaped area on the northeast side of the château and stables planted with three triangular gardens and bordered by the canalized Cosson river on one side. The château was surrounded by wide moats. In front, the parterre continued with two flowerbeds and the Cosson river canalized into the shape of a half moon. The second project, though quite similar, presented a less geometric canal design. The path of the Cosson was regulated but it followed the curves of its original course. The parterres occupied the same north and east spaces but over less area (they no longer occupied the area behind the stables). Their shape also differed slightly, particularly to the north where their structure appeared trapezoidal. It was the second project that was partially implemented, as shown by the geophysical surveys carried out in 2014.

The first phase of the projects, starting around 1684, consisted of banking up the earth around the monument to raise it to a level that would flood less, or not at all. Retaining walls were then built to encircle this artificial terrace, first on the moat side of the château and then at the west and southeast ends. Finally, the canalization of the Cosson was undertaken to follow the contours of the parterre.

The current structure of the space gradually took shape. However, work was quickly halted.

Completion of the Parterre in the 18th Century

Work started again whilst Stanislas Leszczynski, King of Poland, was at Chambord (1725–1733). He alerted the Bâtiments du Roi, the department responsible for building works for the royal estate, to the nuisance caused by the continued presence of the swamps surrounding the château (especially the malaria epidemics that spread through his retinue during the summertime). Starting in 1730, La Hitte, the controller of the Bâtiments du Roi assigned to Chambord, coordinated the continuation of the work initiated under the reign of Louis XIV: the installation of bridges (including the bridge that links the parterre to the château) and dykes, the raising of the walls of the artificial terrace and the depositing of additional soil on the terrace to make it level with the walls, and the cleaning and widening of the Cosson to create a canal.

A garden “in the French style” was then planted over 6.5 hectares, according to a drawing completed in 1734. A gardener was hired to continue planting and to maintain it: Jean-Baptiste Pattard, who had been formerly employed on the terracing of the parterre.

Starting in 1745, the château and its estate were made available to the Marshal General of France, Maurice de Saxe, by King Louis XV. He occasionally visited Chambord between 1746 and 1748, then stayed there continuously until his death [at the château] in 1750. Improvements to the garden continued during this period thanks to the further planting of boxwood trees, chestnut trees, and hornbeam bowers, in addition to the installation of plants and trees in containers along the garden’s pathways (250 pineapple trees, 121 orange trees, 1 lemon tree, and 1 lime tree were mentioned in the 1751 inventory).

A portion of the parterre was redesigned several years later when the estate was made available to the kingdom’s stud farm. The two beds of east lawn were divided lengthwise to create four squares, with a well used to mark the center of the composition.

The Steady Disappearance of the Garden

Once the Revolution started, the garden suffered from a lack of maintenance. In 1817, a condition report of the Chambord estate showed that the trees and shrubs were no longer “trimmed,” the pathways were overgrown with weeds, and the flowerbeds, which had once been full of flowers, were planted with fruit trees or left uncultivated. As for the château’s moats, they had dried up and been partially turned into a vegetable garden!

Between the 19^th century and 1930, the Chambord estate became the property of Henry, Duke of Bordeaux, the grandson of Charles X, then his nephews, the princes of Bourbon-Parma. During this period, the garden was kept according to a simplified structure: all that remained were the beds of lawn, the sand-covered pathways, and the rows or copses of trees that required little maintenance. A complete replanting project was entrusted to the famous landscape architect Achille Duchêne but was never carried out.

Finally, the last known landscaping step: the parterre was divided into large rectangles of meadow in the 20^th century. A row of tall trees remained to the west and certain pathways were marked with yew topiary, shrubs, and rose bushes in front of the château’s facade.

In 1970, all of it was taken out, keeping only the lawn. Two years later, the moats were refilled. This “transitional” landscaping lasted until the 18^th-century French formal garden replanting project, which was started in 2016.

THE WORK SITE

The project was implemented by Jean d’Haussonville, general manager of the National Estate of Chambord (since 2010). During the course of the project, no less than one hundred people were involved.

The National Estate of Chambord, which carried out this project, was represented by Pascal Thévard, director of buildings and gardens.

The SARL [Limited Liability Company] Philippe Chauveau was the OPC (Scheduling, Management and Coordination) Coordinator. Philippe Chauveau acts as primary contractor in the department of Loir-et-Cher, the region of Orléans and Tours. It specializes in industrial construction and the restoration of factories, commercial buildings and local authorities, historic renovation and restoration, as well as in the construction of custom-designed homes.

The SPS (Health & Safety) Coordination is provided by AB Coordination, whose company boasts many experts in construction site safety and security.

Philippe Villeneuve, head architect of historic monuments, was assisted by landscapist Thierry Jourd’heuil.

Further viewing:

Chambord : les inondations vue du ciel

L’Enigme des Rois de France, de Chambord à Versailles.

Chambord : le château, le roi et l’architecte

Château de Langeais

The following article from Wikipedia

The Château de Langeais is a medieval castle in Indre-et-Loire, France, built on a promontory created by the small valley of the Roumer River at the opening to the Loire Valley. Founded in 992 by Fulk Nerra, Count of Anjou, the castle was soon attacked by Odo I, Count of Blois. After the unsuccessful attack, the now-ruined stone keep was built; it is one of the earliest datable stone examples of a keep. Between 994 and 996 the castle was besieged unsuccessfully twice more. During the conflict between the counts of Anjou and Blois, the castle changed hands several times, and in 1038 Fulk captured the castle again.

After it was destroyed during the Hundred Years’ War, King Louis XI (1461–1483) rebuilt Château de Langeais into what today is one of the best known examples of late medieval architecture. It is especially noted for its monumental and highly decorated chimney pieces. Restored in the late 19th century, Château de Langeais came under the control of the Institut de France, who own the site today. It is listed as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture and is open to the public.

History

The ruins of the 10th-century keep

The 10th century saw the emergence of the castle, and Château de Langeais is generally thought to be the second earliest known; the earliest is Château de Doué-la-Fontaine built by the Count of Blois around 900. The counts of Anjou and Blois had bordering territories and the powerful lords were rivals; as a result the border area is home to some of the earliest known castles. When it was founded in 992 by Fulk Nerra, Count of Anjou, Château de Langeais was made from wood and took the form of a motte-and-bailey. A contemporary chronicler noted that it was built because “[Fulk] had no resting place between Bourgueil and Amboise along the Loire river”. It also had the advantage of being 24 km (15 mi) from Tours, a town under the control of Odo I, Count of Blois.

While the land belonged to Fulk, the area was under the control of Odo. When news of the fortification reached Odo he despatched a force to carry out its destruction. The attack was unsuccessful and Fulk reinforced the site, building the stone keep that stands in ruins today. To distract Odo from the construction work, which was complete by 994, Fulk carried out intermittent raids on his lands. It has been suggested that the keep’s shallow foundations and thin walls, 2 m (6 ft 7 in) at their thickest and on average 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in), demonstrate that it was built in haste.

Though he was unsuccessful in 992, Odo again tried to capture the castle two years later. This time he called on his Norman, Flemish, Aquitanian allies and the siege of Château de Langeais began in the spring of 994. Fulk led the garrison himself and sent a message to Hugh Capet, King of the Franks, asking for help; and, though Hugh was ill, he promised reinforcements. In the meantime Odo’s numbers grew as his allies continued to flock to him. The siege continued into the summer and Fulk began negotiating with Odo. Richer, a contemporary chronicler favourable to Odo, asserted that Fulk agreed to surrender but later reneged, claiming the agreement was not binding, though it is uncertain whether this was the case. However, the Capetian forces arrived before Fulk was forced to surrender. Faced with the king’s army, Odo agreed to leave Fulk in peace.

After the siege ended and Odo retreated, Fulk had to deal with hostilities along the western frontier of his lands. Despite Odo’s agreement with Hugh, the Count of Blois exploited Fulk’s divided attention to install a force at Château de Châteaudun from which he could move to capture Langeais should the opportunity arise. Odo besieged Château de Langeais in 995. The siege continued into the next year, but in March 996 Odo fell ill and died. With their leader dead, the besieging force left Langeais. With his most troublesome enemy dead, Fulk captured Tours which had previously been held by the Count of Blois. After Robert, King of the Franks took control of Tours, Fulk turned to the castles of Langeais, Montsoreau, Montrésor, and Montbazon to defend the Loire Valley.

Hostilities between the counts of Anjou and Blois were renewed in 1016. During the course of the conflict, Fulk lost control of three castles: Passavant was destroyed and Montbazon and Langeais were probably captured. By 1032 Château de Langeais was back under Fulk’s control, however it was again taken by the forces of Odo II, Count of Blois. Odo II died in battle in 1037 and was succeeded by his son, Theobald; on receiving the news of his rival’s demise, Fulk set about recapturing Château de Langeais. The siege began in the winter of 1037 and in the spring of the following year, with no relief forthcoming, the garrison surrendered. Fulk set his sights on further territorial gains and successfully captured Château de Chinon 22 km (14 mi) away.

Under the Plantagenet kings, the château was fortified and expanded by Richard I of England (King Richard the Lionheart). However, King Philippe II of France recaptured the château in 1206. Eventually though, during the Hundred Years’ War, the English destroyed it. The château was rebuilt about 1465 during the reign of King Louis XI. The great hall of the château was the scene of the marriage of Anne of Brittany to King Charles VIII on December 6, 1491 that made the permanent union of Brittany and France.

In 1886, Jacques Siegfried bought Château Langeais and began a restoration program. He installed an outstanding collection of tapestries and furnishings and bequeathed the château to the Institut de France which still owns it today. The château is open to the public. It is listed as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.

Layout

The north-east face of the 10th-century keep

According to contemporaneous chronicler Richer, the castle built by Foulques Nerra in the 990s consisted of a tower and a surrounding enclosure. The 10th-century keep still stands, albeit in a ruinous state. It is the earliest example of Romanesque architecture in the region. It is uncertain where the stone used in construction was quarried. A detailed study has been done on the cost of construction of Langeais tower. The stone tower is 16 metres (52 ft) high, 17.5m wide, and 10m long with walls averaging 1.5m. The walls contain 1,200 cubic metres (42,000 cu ft) of stone and have a total surface (both inside and out) of 1,600 square metres (17,000 sq ft). The tower is estimated to have taken 83,000 average working days to complete, most of which was unskilled labor. The wall enclosing the keep stretched for some 250 m (820 ft). The interior rooms are richly decorated.

CLICK Refresh FOR SLIDES

Wikipedia

Official website

Montsoreau – Château

CLICK Refresh FOR SLIDES

Château de Chenonceau

The Château de Chenonceau is a château spanning the River Cher, near the small village of Chenonceaux in the Indre-et-Loire département of the Loire Valley in France. It is one of the best-known châteaux of the Loire valley. The estate of Chenonceau is first mentioned in writing in the 11th century. In the 13th century, the fief of Chenonceau belonged to the Marques family. The original château was torched in 1412 to punish owner Jean Marques for an act of sedition. He rebuilt a château and fortified mill on the site in the 1430s however Jean Marques’s indebted heir Pierre Marques found it necessary to sell. Thomas Bohier, Chamberlain to King Charles VIII of France, purchased the castle from Pierre Marques in 1513 (leading to 2013 being considered the 500th anniversary of the castle: MDXIII–MMXIII.) Bohier demolished the castle, though its 15th-century keep was left standing, and built an entirely new residence between 1515 and 1521. The work was overseen by his wife Katherine Briçonnet,who delighted in hosting French nobility, including King Francis I on two occasions. The château built on the foundations of an old mill was later extended to span the river. The bridge over the river was built (1556-1559) to designs by the French Renaissance architect Philibert de l’Orme, and the gallery on the bridge, built from 1570–1576 to designs by Jean Bullant.

Plan of the main block, engraved by Du Cerceau (1579)

The women of Chenonceau

Diane de Poitiers 1499 – 1566

In 1535 the château was seized from Bohier’s son by King Francis I of France for unpaid debts to the Crown; after Francis’ death in 1547, Henry II offered the château as a gift to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers, who became fervently attached to the château along the river. In 1555 she commissioned Philibert de l’Orme to build the arched bridge joining the château to its opposite bank. Diane then oversaw the planting of extensive flower and vegetable gardens along with a variety of fruit trees. Set along the banks of the river, but buttressed from flooding by stone terraces, the exquisite gardens were laid out in four triangles.

Diane de Poitiers was the unquestioned mistress of the castle, but ownership remained with the crown until 1555, when years of delicate legal maneuvers finally yielded possession to her.

Catherine de’ Medici 1519 – 1589

After King Henry II died in 1559, his strong-willed widow and regent Catherine de’ Medici forced Diane to exchange it for the Château Chaumont. Queen Catherine then made Chenonceau her own favorite residence, adding a new series of gardens.

As Regent of France, Catherine spent a fortune on the château and on spectacular nighttime parties. In 1560, the first ever fireworks display seen in France took place during the celebrations marking the ascension to the throne of Catherine’s son Francis II. The grand gallery was completed in 1577 to close in the existing bridge and Catherine also added rooms between the chapel and the library on the east side of the corps de logis, as well as a service wing on the west side of the entry courtyard.

Catherine considered an even greater expansion of the château, shown in an engraving published by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau in the second (1579) volume of his book Les plus excellents bastiments de France. If this project had been executed, the current château would have been only a small portion of an enormous manor laid out “like pincers around the existing buildings.”

Project for the expansion of the château from Du Cerceau’s 1579 book

Louise of Lorraine 1553 – 1601

On Catherine’s death in 1589 the château went to her daughter-in-law, Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont, wife of King Henry III. It was at Chenonceau that Louise was told of her husband’s assassination in 1589. She withdrew to the château and went into mourning, in white, as required by court protocol. Forgotten by all, she had trouble maintaining her queen-dowager life style. She devoted her time to reading, charity work and prayer.

Gabrielle d’Estrées

Henri IV obtained Chenonceau for his mistress Gabrielle d’Estrées by paying the debts of Catherine de’ Medici, which had been inherited by Louise and were threatening to ruin her. In return Louise left the château to her niece Françoise de Lorraine, at that time six years old and betrothed to the four-year-old César de Bourbon, duc de Vendôme, the natural son of Gabrielle d’Estrées and Henri IV. The château belonged to the Duc de Vendôme and his descendants for more than a hundred years. The Bourbons had little interest in the château, except for hunting. In 1650, Louis XIV was the last king of the ancien régime to visit.

The Château de Chenonceau was bought by the Duke of Bourbon in 1720. Little by little, he sold off all of the castle’s contents. Many of the fine statues ended up at Versailles.

Louise Dupin 1706 – 1799

In the 18th century Louise Dupin gave renewed splendor to the château. She started an outstanding salon with the elite among writers, poets, scientists and philosophers, such as Montesquieu, Voltaire or Rousseau. A wise protector of Chenonceau, she managed to save the château during the Revolution.

Marguerite Pelouze 1836 – 1902

In the 19th century, Marguerite Pelouze, descended from the industrial bourgeoisie, decided in 1864 to transform the monument and its gardens according to her taste for luxury. She spent a fortune on restoring the estate to the time period of Diane de Poitiers. Chenonceau was sold once, and then again in 1913.

Simonne Menier 1881 – 1972

During the First World War far from the trenches Chenonceau also knew the troubles of wartime. Simone Menier transformed and equipped the gallery into a hospital at her family’s own expense and over 2 000 wounded were cared for up to 1918. Her bravery led her to carry out numerous actions for the resistance during the Second World War (1939-1945).

CLICK Refresh FOR SLIDES

Official guide

Ussé

Around the year 1,000 AD the region of Touraine was prey to incessant fighting between its rivals. Gelduin I decided to build a stronghold of wood and stone, perched like an eagle’s nest on the side of the hill and backing on to the fantastic forest of Chinon. The site was strategic and as time went by this fortress became the foundation for the construction of a new castle. The first alterations, making the castle less of a fortress and more of a beautiful and spiritual place, were carried out by Jean V de Bueil. He was a supporter of Joan of Arc, the “Scourge of the English”, and his son married one the daughters of Charles VII and Agnès Sorel. This was the beginning of the château we see today, with the prison tower and the first chapel at its centre. In the 15th century, entry to the château was still made across a drawbridge spanning a moat.

A château destined for gracious living

In the 16th century, Charles D’Espinay and Lucrèce de Pons oversaw the construction of the central part of the castle, the first part of the right wing and the chapel. But it is in the 17th century that the castle was transformed into a place of residence with the addition of a charming pavilion built to celebrate the marriage of Maréchal de Vauban’s daughter and the Marquis de Valentinay who was the owner’s son and King Louis XIV’s Controller-General of Finances. It was thanks to the King’s patronage that the château was honoured and became a marquisate. The French formal garden, designed by le Nôtre and terraced by Vauban added the finishing touches and finally transformed the château into an enchanting residence.

CLICK Refresh FOR SLIDES

Google Maps – Château d’Ussé

Nantes – Château – Château de Bretagne

From the official website of Château de Bretagne

The monument

Set in the historic heart of Nantes, the Château des ducs de Bretagne is the city’s most important historic building, along with the Cathedral St. Pierre. When looking at it from the city, it is a fortress with 500 metres of curtain walls punctuated by seven towers, all linked by a sentry walkway. The inner courtyard reveals an elegant 15th century ducal residence made of tufa stone, in flamboyant gothic style and bearing the first traces of Renaissance inspiration, as well as other buildings dating back from the 16th and the 18th centuries. With their elegant white stone walls and sophisticated sculpted façades, they contrast strikingly with the rough textures of the exterior fortifications, made of granite blocks and separated by layers of schist.

History

The first ducal castle was built in the 13th century on top of the (still visible) Gallo-Roman wall of the town, where the Namnetes settled. It was demolished in the 15th century to make way for the present building. The current castle was the work of Francis II, the last Duke of an independent Brittany, who wanted to make the Château des ducs de Bretagne both a military fortress, which could act as a defence against the King, and the principal residence of the ducal court. Work was continued by Duchess Anne of Brittany, twice Queen of France through her marriages to Charles VIII and Louis XII. Her influence can be seen in the sculptural décor (dormer windows overlooking the main residence, as well as the coat of arms and loggias on the “Golden Crown” tower), marked by the first signs of the Italian Renaissance.

Following the integration of Brittany into France in 1532, during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Château des ducs de Bretagne became the residence of the kings of France when they visited Brittany, and later a military barracks, an arsenal, and a prison. For three centuries, it endured countless transformations and considerable damage: fortifications, a fire in 1670, construction of the Military Saddlery (Bâtiment du Harnachement) for storing artillery equipment, an explosion in 1800, and so on.

Listed as a historical monument in 1862, it was sold by the government to the City of Nantes in 1915 before also becoming, in 1924, a municipal museum. During World War II, the occupying German forces built a bunker there.

The renovation

The 1990s focussed on restoring the Jacobins’ Tower (Tour des Jacobins), the façades of the Principal Governor’s Palace (Grand Gouvernement – 15c/17c) and the 15th century Golden Crown Tower (Tour de la Couronne d’Or). The Military Saddlery (Harnachement – 18c) refurbished in 1997, was used for temporary exhibitions.

In 2000 work began on restoring the white tufa façades of the main ducal residence (Grand Logis – 15c) to their full glory. These are the oldest and most impressive sections of the building, providing a link between the Castle of the Dukes of Brittany and the Loire Châteaux. The bell tower has been rebuilt and the spires have been replaced on the Golden Crown Tower (Tour de la Couronne d’Or). The interior of the ducal residence has also been completely restored and redeveloped to house the museum.

The restoration has brought out the full power of the Breton feudal fortress and the elegance of the Renaissance ducal palace.

The castle reopened in 2007.