Château et son enceinte

English translation

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History

The castle of Loches, established on a promontory 450 metres long, is already mentioned by Gregory of Tours as a fortress at the end of the 5th century. The medieval castle is divided into three main parts: the bailey or lower courtyard which houses the former collegiate church, the royal dwelling and finally the keep which forms the nucleus of the fortress. The construction of the keep is attributed to Foulques Nerra, who died in 1040. The fortress is a stake between the kings of England, dukes of Anjou, and the kings of France. Saint Louis redeems the keep in 1249; the latter remains a royal residence until the 15th century. During the Hundred Years War, the keep is put back in order in 1358 and 1359. Important carpentry works are carried out: a drawbridge is constructed, a barrier in front of it and the keep and its outbuilding are covered with shingles. A fireplace is constructed in the chamber situated beneath the chapel. The keep is abandoned in the 15th century with the construction of the new royal dwelling and transformed into a state prison until the Revolution. The keep is composed of two elements: the great keep, a rectangle of approximately 25 metres by 14, of which the crowning is missing, and an outbuilding attached against its north face, called the small keep. The thickness of the walls varies from 3.40 metres at the base to 2.60 metres at the top. They are faced in medium ashlar of tuff with wide joints, struck with a flat iron and stiffened by semi-cylindrical buttresses on dosserets. The great keep had a ground floor for use as a cellar and four storeys beneath a roof space or terrace. The storeys were heated by fireplaces placed one above the other with conical hoods and lit by round-arched windows opening with wide internal splays. Dendrochronological analyses indicate that the greater part of the fortress was built homogeneously over a few years and that the wooden hoardings must have been put in place in the first half of the 11th century.