Château de Langeais
– Destination –
Louis XI had the Château de Langeais built from 1465. Fifty years before Azay-le-Rideau, the style remained medieval: outside, with its fortified towers, its rampart on machicolations and its drawbridge, it has everything of a fortified castle. Its interior facade, with its many windows, however, announces the Renaissance places of residence. Very well preserved, it is a fine example of this period at the end of the Middle Ages.
It was here that the Duchess of Brittany married King Charles VIII, on the sly at dawn on December 6, 1491. This union allowed Brittany to join the kingdom of France. The marriage contract provides that in the event of the death of the king without having had a male heir, Anne of Brittany would have to marry the successor of the king ... which happened!
Vous trouverez aussi un château très bien meublé, avec en particulier une très belle collection de tapisseries des XVe et XVIe siècle.
And about a hundered meters from the chateau, on the hill, is a crumbling wall: the remains of one of the oldest stone dungeons. We will talk to you about it again when we discuss Romanesque civil architecture in Touraine with Foulques Nerra!
