Château de Villandry

Villandry

Before it was called Villandry, the place was called Colombiers, and a fortress stood there. According to the château's own site, it was in its tower that the Peace of Colombiers was signed on 4 July 1189: Henry II Plantagenet, defeated by his son Richard the Lionheart in alliance with Philip Augustus, acknowledged Richard as his sole heir; he died two days later at Chinon. Other sources place this capitulation at Azay-le-Rideau, ten kilometres away, which has its own entry: the date is certain, the place is disputed. In 1532, or 1533 according to other sources, Jean Breton, secretary of finances to François I, acquired the lordship, had the fortress razed but kept its keep, and added a third wing that opens the château in a U towards the valley. The name Villandry officially replaced Colombiers in 1639. Modernised in the eighteenth century by the Comte de Castellane, owned for a time by Jérôme Bonaparte, the château is a registered and then listed historic monument; its famous gardens are an early twentieth-century re-creation.

Getting there : Gardens open year-round, château from February to early January, paid entry.

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

Ambient sound