Château de Loches, Le Logis Royal de Loches
The Château de Loches, also known as Le Logis Royal de Loches, is an impressive fortress built in the 9th century on a natural ridge overlooking the Indre River and to defend a monastery and its village.
It has a vast dungeon, a royal residence where Agnes Sorel, mistress of King Charles VII, lived, and the Church of Saint-Ours. Loches has little significant history until 1150, when Henry II Plantagenêt, King of England, became Duke of Normandy. Henry also inherited Anjou, Maine, and Touraine regions upon his father’s death in 1151, and then Aquitaine in 1154 following his marriage to Eleanor of Aquitaine.
In short, Henry controlled a large part of France! Needless to say, this greatly displeased the King of France, Philip II Augustus, who spent most of his reign fighting the English. Philip II finally recaptured the fortress of Loches in 1204 and transformed it into an impressive military stronghold, including a massive keep and a moat system. His victory at the Battle of Bouvines in 1214 established him as the undisputed king of France, and at his death in 1223, the kingdom of France was the most powerful and prosperous country in Europe!
Charles VII, a king born during the Hundred Years’ War
Let’s fast-forward to 1403, the year of Charles VII’s birth, in the midst of the Hundred Years’ War, when the English had regained ground! The marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II was undoubtedly the trigger for the Franco-English conflict, but the subsequent marriages between the two royal families complicated the political situation to the point of absurdity!
King Philip the Fair died without a male heir in 1328. His daughter, Isabella of France, being a woman, was not able to inherit the crown. However, she married Edward II of England, with whom she had a son, Edward III, who naturally claimed the French crown. Needless to say, the French nobility refused to accept a foreign king and chose Philip VI of Valois, Philip the Fair’s nephew. Edward III thus became a vassal of the King of France, but contested the return of the Duchy of Aquitaine (then called Guyenne) to the French crown. This heightened tensions between the two sovereigns and inevitably led to a declaration of war in 1337. The Hundred Years’ War had begun and would end in 1453 with the defeat of the English at the Battle of Castillon and their final withdrawal from France (with the exception of Calais).
Loches, the stage for one of the pivotal moments in French history
Agnes Sorel, Charles VII’s favourite
Loches, the medieval fortress
The fortress of Loches, originally built by Fulk Nerra, 4th Count of Anjou, at the beginning of the 11th century to defend the southern part of the village, underwent numerous transformations, expansions, and embellishments. Louis XI converted it into a royal residence in the 13th century. The building’s three stories have collapsed overtime, but 157 remaining steps lead to the upper level, which offers a spectacular view of the valley and the town.
The Donjon – Keep, which consists of an imposing fortified square tower and two additional towers, La Tour Ronde and Le Martelet, is considered one of the finest examples of 11th-century military architecture. Not only is it among the oldest, but it is also one of the best-preserved stone keeps in Europe. This formidable square defensive tower, 36 metres on each side, had four stories. Over time, it served both as a royal fortress and as a state prison. Thus, in the 19th and 20th centuries, it served as the prison for the Indre-et-Loire department.
The 15th-century Tour Ronde – Round Tower, also known as the Tour Louis XI, was the original prison of the fortress. Standing 25 metres tall, it has three floors served by a spiral staircase and is accessible through the current entrance hall of the 14th-century Logis du Gouverneur – Governor’s Lodgings. During the reign of Louis XI, prisoners were locked in wooden and iron cages located on the upper floors, whose walls still bear traces of graffiti they carved. The Salle de la Question – Questioning Room, the torture chamber, was located on the ground floor.
The 15th-century Martelet Tower is 27 metres high. It served as a prison for political prisoners; the cells were distributed across its four floors. In 1307, some members of the Order of the Knights Templars were imprisoned in the tower awaiting trial, as was Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, who was incarcerated there from 1504 until his death in 1508.
The 12th-century ramparts, built under Henry Plantagenêt, remain partially intact despite the numerous conflicts and sieges that Loches endured. The only entrance to the fortified town, the Porte Royale – Royal Gate, was built in the 13th century and then modified in the following century. A Barbican on a triangular base was added in the 15th century to strengthen the gate’s resistance to artillery fire, and the Caponnière bunker was built during the Wars of Religion. Old sandstone quarries, located 20 metres below the fortifications, were converted into an underground passage to serve as a crucial escape route or retreat in case of a siege.
Château de Loches, a masterpiece of Gothic design
The Logis Royal de Loches consists of two adjoining wings. The north wing, known as the Vieux Logis – Old Lodge, is the taller and older of the two. Built in the 15th century for Charles VII, it primarily served as a residence for Agnès Sorel. The south wing, or Nouveau Logis – New Lodge, was built in the 16th century in the Renaissance style for Charles VIII and Louis XII. The private chapel of Queen Anne of Brittany, wife of Louis XII, was built around 1500 and is consider a true masterpiece of Flamboyant Gothic architecture.
Louis I of Anjou undertook the first phase of construction at the beginning of the 14th century. This Gothic fortress was equipped with a watchtower and a wall-walk. In the second half of the century, Charles VII and Louis XII enlarged and improved the building in the Flamboyant Gothic style, the magnificent style of the period.
Renowned as a masterpiece of Gothic architecture, the Logis Royal de Loches, the much-loved residence of the Valois kings, have since undergone meticulous restoration, preserving their historical grandeur even though the rooms are now furnished and decorated with restraint. The most historically significant room, the Great Hall in the Vieux Logis, is where Joan of Arc met Charles VII and persuaded him to go to Reims for his coronation. The walls are adorned with 16th-century tapestries depicting either Charles VII or the trial of Joan of Arc. Joan of Arc’s Chamber houses a recumbent statue of Agnès Sorel, which was severely damaged and desecrated during the French Revolution but fully restored during the reign of Napoleon I.
Château de Loches’ medieval garden
Department of Indre-et-Loire – Château de Loches
Coordinates: Lat 47.124864 – Long 0.996801
Photos via Wikimedia Commons: Header and Eglise St Ours and Donjon by Krzysztof Golik CC BY-SA 4.0 – Logis Royal by Frank Wouters CC BY 2.0 – Porte Royale by Manfred Heyde CC BY-SA 3.0 – Fouquet’s Madonna and Child by Jean Fouquet (1410–) Public domain – Donjon by N.duske CC BY-SA 4.0 – Castle seen from gardens by Joneall CC BY-SA 3.0
