Château de Langeais (donjon de Foulques Nerra et mariage d'Anne de Bretagne)

Langeais

At Langeais, the château stands in the middle of the town, above the Loire. Fulk Nerra, count of Anjou, is said to have founded a fortress here in the late 10th century. A section of his keep survives in the courtyard and is among the oldest stone keeps still standing; the sources consulted give no precise year. Plantagenets and Capetians fought over the place, which Philip Augustus retook in 1206 according to Techno-science, and then the Hundred Years' War ruined it. In 1465 Louis XI decided to raise a new château here, lower than the old one. Jean Bourré, one of his counsellors, directed the work, which lasted about two years according to the château's website. In July 1466 the king gave the building to his cousin Dunois. It was in a large hall that, at dawn on 6 December 1491, Charles VIII married Anne of Brittany, aged fourteen, before a small number of witnesses. The contract provided that Anne would marry the next king if Charles died without a son, and this marriage began the union of Brittany with the kingdom. Charles VIII died at Amboise in 1498. Abandoned after the Revolution, the château was bought in 1886 by Jacques Siegfried, who restored and furnished it over nearly twenty years before giving it to the Institut de France in 1904.

Getting there: In the centre of the town of Langeais; museum, opening hours and visiting conditions to be checked on the official website. Coordinates: OpenStreetMap (Nominatim), consistent with Wikipedia to within a few metres.

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

Ambient sound