Chateau de Sully-sur-Loire

Sully looks like the castle in a children's book: four round towers with conical roofs standing in a moat fed by the Loire, built from 1395 by Raymond du Temple for Guy de La Tremoille. Joan of Arc came here in 1429 to press Charles VII to march on Reims. Its most remarkable feature is not visible from outside: the roof frame over the keep is the original oak carpentry from the end of the fourteenth century, one of the finest surviving medieval roof structures in France, and visitors walk through it. Voltaire spent periods here in exile and staged plays in the chateau. Floods and a fire in 1918 forced long restorations.

History

The castle stands at a natural ford on the Loire, built on three islands that flooded only in the worst years, with the village of Saint-Père on a mound to the north and the old parish church of Saint-Germain on a knoll to the south. A ford is mentioned during the Viking raids of the 9th century, and a "castrum soliacense" appears in documents in 1102 as the northernmost stronghold of the lords of Sully. In 1218, after a dispute over the lord's excessive taxes, Philip Augustus seized the lordship and built a cylindrical keep of his own in front of the lord's keep, and in the 14th century Charles V paid for repairs between 1357 and 1360, after the Peace of Brétigny; later the castle was the seat of Maximilien de Béthune, Duke of Sully, minister of Henry IV (Wikipedia, Château de Sully-sur-Loire).

What's there

• The medieval roof frame - original fourteenth-century oak carpentry overhead.
• The moated towers - four conical-roofed drums standing in water.
• The Joan of Arc rooms - spaces tied to her 1429 stay.
• The Voltaire connection - the theatre tradition of his exile years.

When to go

April to October; the chateau closes some winter weeks. A classical music festival runs in June. The Loire path passes the walls for the exterior view.

Before you go

Interiors are sparsely furnished and the appeal is structural rather than decorative. Flood damage over the centuries means much is restoration. The town itself is small.

Nearby

Orleans lies northwest; Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire abbey is close.

Key facts