Château de Montrésor (mémoire polonaise du comte Branicki)

Montrésor

At Montrésor, on a spur overlooking the Indrois, Fulk Nerra is said to have had a fortress built around 1005, its construction entrusted to his captain Roger the Little Devil according to English Wikipedia. Henry II Plantagenet seized it and added entrance towers; Philip Augustus retook it in 1188. The château was demolished in 1203 and then rebuilt in 1393 for Jean IV de Bueil. In 1493 Imbert de Batarnay, whom some sources write Bastarnay, bought back Montrésor. He was chamberlain to four kings of France. Within the old enclosure he raised a Renaissance residence. Around 1845 the count of Gonsans demolished the west wing of the residence and the chapel. In 1849 the mother of the Polish count Xavier Branicki, a political exile and friend of Napoleon III, bought the ruined château for her son. For some twenty years he restored it and gathered there objects and paintings linked to the history of Poland. Without a legitimate heir, Branicki passed the estate to his brother Konstanty, then to distant relatives. Even today, the furnished rooms evoke this Polish exile in Touraine.

Getting there: Village of Montrésor, above the Indrois; visiting conditions to be checked. Coordinates: OpenStreetMap (Nominatim). The Monumentum entry could not be consulted.

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

Ambient sound