Château de Luynes (duché de Luynes et connétable d'Albert)

Luynes

Above the Loire, west of Tours, the village of Luynes was called Maillé, from Malliacum, before the 17th century. A first château was destroyed at the end of the 10th century during the war between Anjou and Touraine; a new building dates from the early 12th century. The present château keeps a quadrangular enclosure with four cylindrical towers of the 13th and 15th centuries. Charles d'Albert, favourite of Louis XIII, bought the county of Maillé before August 1619. The king then raised it to the duchy of Luynes. Charles d'Albert was received as duke and peer of France on 14 November 1619. He had helped organise the assassination of Concini in 1617. He died of scarlet fever on 15 December 1621, aged 43, at the château de Longueville, in Guyenne. The town took the name of the duchy. According to the Petites Cités de Caractère brochure, the second duke demolished the central keep. At the bottom of the village survive a Gallo-Roman aqueduct, listed in 1862 and dated to the 2nd century according to the brochure and the tourist office, and a 15th-century market hall, listed in 1930.

Getting there: In the village of Luynes, above the Loire, near Tours; the château is private, visiting conditions to be checked. Coordinates: OpenStreetMap (Nominatim) and English Wikipedia.

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

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