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8673.
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8676.More information
Loches Castle.Loches Castle, which came into the hands of the counts of Anjou toward the year 900, remained a formidable fortress until the beginning of the thirteenth century, when it was recaptured for the French crown. From this period, the folio wing vestiges remain : 1) a part of the original knoll (motte féodale), dating no earlier than the eleventh century and situated against the east wall of the keep ; 2) the present keep, constructed ca. 1100 after the abandonment of a first project from which many clearly visible traces remain ; 3) the porch tower of the collegiate church of Notre-Dame ; 4) some vestiges of a rampart built against the southern angles of the keep and extending toward the west and east ; 5) some vestiges of a dependancy of the ancient domicilium, which must have occupied, for the most part, the location of the présent royal dwelling ; 6) a rampart overlooking the present ditch, quoined with full towers. The sieges of Richard the Lionhearted in 1194 and Philippe-Auguste in 1205 demonstrated the weaknesses of a fortress that was outmoded and whose apparent strength was mostly due to its position on a steep promontory. It is for this reason that the citadel was reinforced on the south side by the widening and deepening of the moat and the construction over three or four decades of the three spurred towers and a cylindrical tower to the east of the keep, as well as the lower parts of the lodge at the entrance. Despite these modernizations, Loches ceased to play an important military role before 1200. Under the Valois, principally under Charles VII and Louis XII, Loches was a royal residence. Charles VII established his household in an elegant fourteenth-century manor situated at the far end of the promontory (the present Charles VII residence). Louis XII built on the wing that bears his name, and Louis XI, who spent little time at Loches, saw to the construction of the great cylindrical tower at the south-west angle of the citadel. During the Wars of Religion, Loches castle was reduced to the unobtrusive role of a food and munitions depot.
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