Tour du Coudray - Forteresse royale de Chinon

Chinon

The Chinon fortress is not a Templar foundation, but it holds one of the most harrowing places in the fall of the Order. Built by Philippe Auguste after the 1205 siege, the Coudray tower became in 1308 the prison of dozens of Knights Templar arrested on the order of Philippe le Bel, among them Grand Master Jacques de Molay himself. For several months, awaiting an unjust trial staged to destroy an order that had become too rich and too powerful, these men waited, prayed, and above all carved their faith into the cold stone of their cell. On the tower's walls one can still make out wayside crosses, an angel, an armed monk-soldier, and various instruments of Christ's Passion: a direct, rare and moving testimony to the spiritual distress of the last Templars. Six years later, in 1314, Jacques de Molay would die at the stake in Paris. At Chinon, these silent graffiti tell, better than any book, the brutal end of an epic that had begun two centuries earlier in Jerusalem.

Getting there : 4 rue du Château, 37500 Chinon; fortress overlooking the old town, accessible on foot from the historic centre.

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

Ambient sound