Collégiale Saint-Ours de Loches

Loches

Perched in the royal citadel of Loches, between the keep of Fulk Nerra and the Royal Lodgings, the collegiate church of Saint-Ours was first born as Notre-Dame: founded around 965 by the Count of Anjou Geoffrey Greymantle and continued by his son Fulk Nerra, it housed a celebrated relic that made it a goal of pilgrimage: the Virgin's girdle. Twelve canons served it. In the 12th century the prior Thomas Pactius gave it its unparalleled silhouette: the nave is covered by two hollow octagonal pyramids, the "dubes", unique in France, which still puzzle archaeologists and visitors alike. Beneath the tower porch, the polychrome portal — the best preserved in Touraine — unfolds a rare iconography that includes the liberal arts. But the place also owes its renown to an illustrious dead woman: Agnès Sorel, the "Dame de Beauté", the first official mistress of a king of France. Her alabaster effigy on a slab of black marble, carved around 1450 with princely quality, returned to the collegiate church in 2005 and recovered its original brilliance in the restoration of 2015; two angels watch over her face, two lambs lie at her feet. Tradition relates that the fair Agnès, who died at 28, had asked to rest beside Notre-Dame de Loches, which she had honoured with her gifts. Recent excavations (2019–2020) continue to make the ground beneath the building speak. A few steps away, the keep and the dungeons of Louis XI complete one of the densest concentrations of history in Touraine.

Getting there : 2 rue Thomas-Pactius, in the citadel of Loches, next to the Royal Lodgings. Open daily 9am–6pm, free admission. Listed historic monument (1840 list).

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound