Loches

Loches keeps a complete medieval citadel on its ridge: a walled enclosure with the royal lodge at one end and the keep at the other, separated by a church and a street of houses. The keep, built by Fulk Nerra around 1013, is one of the oldest surviving stone keeps in Europe, thirty-six metres high, and it later served as a prison; Ludovico Sforza, duke of Milan, spent the last four years of his life imprisoned there and painted the walls of his cell. The collegiate church of Saint-Ours, inside the same citadel, holds the tomb of Agnes Sorel, mistress of Charles VII, with an alabaster effigy returned there in 2005, and Joan of Arc met the king here in 1429.

History

Loches, the Roman Leucae, grew up around a monastery founded about 500 by Saint Ours, and it belonged to the Counts of Anjou from 886 until 1205, when Philip Augustus took it from King John of England. From the middle of the 13th century until after the reign of Charles IX the castle was a residence of the kings of France, except for a brief grant in 1424 to Archibald Douglas, Duke of Touraine, and in 1441 Antoine Guenand was made its captain-governor (Wikipedia, Loches).

What to look for

• The Fulk Nerra keep - an eleventh-century tower open to the roof.
• The prison cells - Sforza's painted cell and the cage rooms below.
• Agnes Sorel's tomb - an alabaster effigy in the Saint-Ours church.
• The walled citadel - a complete enclosure with church and houses inside.

When to go

April to October; the site opens year-round with shorter winter hours. The keep involves many stairs and open platforms, which are better in fair weather.

What to expect

The keep is a shell with steep stairs and exposed walkways, hard going for some. The prison rooms are dark and cramped. The town below is pleasant but modest.

Nearby

Chenonceau lies north; Tours is northwest.