I read the map like a wine list:
Anjou, Chinon, Bourgueil, Vouvray, Sanser …
They were drunk by the king, not like the Dauphin …
Pavel Mityushev, "World", vol. 3
Castles and fortresses. Every summer, more and more Russians travel abroad for holidays. It is quite possible that among them there will be those who find themselves in France either in the Chinon castle itself on the banks of the Vienne River, or not far from it. In any case, you should visit and see it there, because in fact you will find yourself not just in a castle, of which there are thousands in France, but in a place where its history was created in the most direct way! Yes, that's right, and a story rooted in the darkness of centuries … On the pages of "VO" we have already talked about the secret graffiti of this castle, allegedly pointing to the hidden treasures of the Templars. But when and how was this castle itself built and how did it become famous, besides the fact that the disgraced Templars were kept in it? This is our story today …
Even on the site of the castle of St. George - the advanced fortification of Chinon, an ancient dwelling of the Gallic leader was found, which means that people settled in this place a very long time ago. The remains of the walls of a Roman settlement of the 5th century AD were also found there. It is known for certain that the first stone tower in its place was built on a mountain spur in 954 by the Count of Blues Thibault the Fraud. But 90 years later, in 1044, it was captured by Geoffrey Martel, Duke of Anjou, who turned him and all the lands around him into his domain. Well, and his nephew Fulk IV, nicknamed Grumpy, went even further. In 1068, he usurped the title of Count of Anjou, which should have belonged to his brother, and he himself was imprisoned within its walls for almost thirty years. It got to the point that in 1095, Pope Urban II, who visited Tours, with the aim of preaching the Crusade, had to personally come to Chinon in order to achieve his release. But this same Fulk also introduced a special tax on his vassals and with these funds began to strengthen the castle.
In 1109, after the death of Fulk IV, his grandson Geoffrey V of Anjou, nicknamed Handsome, adopted another nickname Plantagenet - "Gorse flower", which was depicted on his coat of arms, and became the foundation of the Plantagenet dynasty, since his son Henry II later became king of England.
In 1152, Henry Plantagenet married Eleanor of Aquitaine, who had just been divorced from the King of France. She brought him Aquitaine as a dowry and in thirteen years bore him eight children, five of whom were boys.
Having become king of England in 1154, Henry built numerous palace buildings in Chinon, where his administration was located and even the "Treasure Tower", where his treasury was kept. And it turns out that during the many years spent by the king in moving from England to France and back, it was Chinon who was his capital and the main military base of all his military operations on the continent! And in 1173, this castle also became a prison for his wife Eleanor. Accused of supporting several plots of her sons against her father, she was held for almost fifteen years, first here, and then under house arrest in England. When Henry II died in Chinon in 1189, his children inherited a rich and powerful state, but their rivalry weakened it to the limit.
Local legend claims that Henry's son, King Richard the Lionheart, after an unfortunate wound by an arrow in 1199, also gave up his ghost in Chinon, although most likely he was already dead when his body was taken to this castle.
Then the crown of the Plantagenets was succeeded by Richard's brother - John, who received the nickname Landless. Again, it was in Chinon in August 1200 that he celebrated his wedding with Isabella of Angoulême, cousin of the King of France, and then for two more years strengthened Chinon against the French king Philip Augustus. However, despite all his efforts, the fortress still fell in 1205 under the blows of Philip's army, after which John in 1214 had to sign an armistice with Philip, depriving him of many possessions in France.
Well, then the castle turned into a royal prison and was closely connected with the history of the Templars and their mysteriously lost treasures.
Well, then, already during the Hundred Years War, the future Dauphin Charles, in the future King of France Charles VII, having married Maria of Anjou, it was Chinon who made his summer residence, where from 1427 his entire court was located.
And then a truly historic event took place here, which radically changed the fate of France: in March 1429, Joan of Arc arrived in Chinon, where she meets the Dauphin, convinces him to be crowned in Rheims, and give her an army to liberate Orleans besieged by the British. This famous episode of an epic story is usually portrayed as some kind of mythical and completely miraculous scene. According to legend, the courtiers of Charles decided to test the girl, dressing the Dauphin in simple clothes and hiding him in the crowd, Jeanne unmistakably recognized him among other people. However, in fact, two meetings between the Dauphin and Jeanne took place in Chinon. The first took place in February of this year in the Dauphin's apartments, after which he sent her to Poitiers to meet with theologians for verification. Upon her return, she was again accepted by Karl. This second audience was already more formal in nature, and then, as is often the case, both of these meetings merged into one, and then a fair amount of mysticism got mixed up in this story. It is believed that when Jeanne recognized the disguised king hidden among the courtiers, she said something to him that proved her omniscience to him and instilled in him cheerfulness and confidence. Later, during interrogation, Jeanne told another story in which she claimed that it was the king who received a sign that helped him to recognize her. It was "a beautiful, honorable and good sign." Later, she said that then an angel appeared, who "stepped on the ground," "entered the hall through the door," and gave the golden crown to the Archbishop of Rheims, who, in turn, handed it over to Charles. In any case, the symbolism of the situation is quite obvious. But the "miracle" was not in vain, but helped Karl regain his kingdom. But no historical sources confirm this very nature of their meeting, and no one knows exactly how it all happened. And this is just one of the many secrets of Chinon Castle, which we, apparently, will never be able to unravel!
The last fortification works in the castle were carried out in 1560 during the so-called "Wars of Faith", after which the castle was abandoned and began to gradually decline.
In 1632, the almighty Cardinal Richelieu became the owner of the castle, and according to local legend, he used his stone to build his own castle. However, most likely Richelieu simply demolished the Throne Room and the tops of the defense towers. By the beginning of the 19th century, Chinon Castle was a ring of dilapidated walls and ruined towers - although it was one of the most impressive structures of this type, not only in France, but also in Europe. In 1854, the danger of the collapse of the castle arose, and then the inspector general of historical monuments, the famous French writer Prosper Mérimée, spoke out for its salvation. Work began on its restoration. In the royal apartments, the floor was restored according to the original drawings, and the rooms themselves were furnished with copies of antique furniture. To date, a number of buildings have been restored in the castle in the form they had in the 15th century, and overheads from local aged oak and a tiled roof from Anzhevinsky slate were installed above them.
Well, now that we have got acquainted with all the main secrets of this truly unique castle, let's take a look at it both from the outside and from the inside. From above, this castle looks like an elongated rectangle, consisting of three castles - St. George, Middle Castle and Kudrey Castle. You can get into it through the entrance on the east side, where Henry II Plantagenet built several buildings for his administration and court. They were named after the chapel of St. George, the patron saint of the knights, which was located here, and at first these buildings had no defensive significance. However, forty years later, the son of Henry II, King John the Landless, surrounded them with a wall and turned them into a forward fortification on the side of the road to Tours. These buildings have not survived today, only the walls, and here, near the bridge to the Middle Castle, there is a tourist center.
This stone bridge, with several arches, is thrown over a dry moat and leads directly to the gates of the high Clock Tower, dating from the end of the 13th century. There are five floors inside the tower, connected by a spiral staircase. Next to the clock is a chime called Mary Javelle. After passing through the gate in the tower, we find ourselves on the territory of the Middle Castle, where the first thing we see is the remains of the royal apartments near the southern wall of the castle. They have been built and rebuilt over the years. Around 1370, the Duke of Anjou, Louis I, undertook their reconstruction, adding a "Hall of Justice" to them. Under Charles VII, there were already three large buildings located around the entire courtyard. The royal apartments on the second floor contained an entrance hall, a bedroom, a bathroom and a dressing room. On the first one there were offices and a refectory. Located in the eastern part of this wing, the Hall of Justice has since the 14th century become the Great Hall, also known as the Hall of Confession. On the north side, one of the buildings of the Convent of Saint-Melee has been converted into a ballroom.
Climbing the wall, we can go to the Boissy tower, which was erected in the 13th century, possibly during the time of Louis IX, on the south side of the castle. It got its name from the Boissy family, who owned the Chinon castle in the 16th century. On its first floor there is a guard room, within the walls of which there are narrow loopholes for archers, through which you can observe the valley and the moat of the Kudrey castle. A staircase built into the wall leads to the upper two floors and to the terrace. From it, the path leads to the Kudrey Tower, but in the old days it was not easy to get into it: the entrance to it was preceded by a drawbridge.
The Curls Tower is one of the three surviving towers built by Philip Augustus after he captured Chinon in 1205. Its name can be attributed to the presence of a grove of hazelnuts inside the fortress (“coudres” in Old French), since the tower itself is located inside the castle and together with the drawbridge and walls forms the Castle of Curdre - another “castle within the castle”. There are three intact floors inside. The first two are covered with Gothic vaults, and the passage itself is located on the second floor. The tower rooms have fireplaces and restrooms. The lower room has a tunnel entrance, allowing you to escape from the castle in the event of a siege. The same tower was used as a prison for the Knights of the Order of the Temple in 1308.
The King John Mill Tower is a key element of the Castle of Curd, located on the wall just behind the Tower of Boissy. The ground floor, with a polygonal layout and a segmented domed roof, is typical of its time, but very rare in Plantagenet castles. The tower owes its name to the presence of a windmill, which supplied the castle with its own flour. And this is the only tower of the castle that protects its wall from the west. The first floor of the tower is not connected to the second floor, which is accessible only by a passage along the wall. Both floors have loopholes, with embrasures in the wall niches, which was again typical of that time. The staircase goes up in the thickness of the wall.
In 1477, King Louis XI entrusted the Chinon fortress to his biographer Philippe Commune, owner of the Argenton-le-Vallee castle. He fortified the northwestern corner of the Middle Castle by building a new, stronger tower capable of withstanding artillery fire, which was named Argenton in honor of the new owner's estate. Its walls are five meters thick, and the cannon embrasures are very low, at the height of the moat. In the 17th century, this tower served as a prison, as evidenced by the graffiti on its walls.
The Hound Tower was also built by Philip Augustus, but differs from all others in that it has the shape of a horseshoe. It owes its name to the nearby kennels, where the royal hounds were housed. It has three vaulted floors topped with a high terrace. The entrance is located on the middle floor, and here you can see a large oven for baking bread, and the restrooms are located between the first and second floors.
The castle, if you go around it, seems huge, although due to the absence of many buildings, it is rather empty. However, in the past it was a real small city, where people, dogs, and horses were at the same time, in fact, a small state within a state, surrounded by strong fortress walls!
