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Castle

Château de Thouars

France · 17th century

Founded
c. 1650
Architect
Jacques Lemercier
Heritage status
classified historical monument · Maisons des Illustres
Location
Thouars
Coordinates
46.9709°, -0.2173°
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Château de Thouars in France
Photo: Nicolas Raoul · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Description

The Château des Ducs de La Trémoille (English: Castle of the Dukes of La Tremoille) is located in Thouars in the Deux-Sèvres département of France and was built in the 17th century. It is located on a strategic defense point—a promontory above the Thouet river—and consists of the main building, an inner court, an orangery, a chapel and a stable.

The first known reference to the city of Thouars is dated 762, in a document describing how a fortress was taken and then razed to the ground by Pepin the Short. Later reconstructed -it is regularly mentioned from the 10th century- the castle was again partially destroyed in 1158 by Henry II of England coveting the lands of Thouars's viscounty which would be an important stronghold during the Hundred Years' War. A surrounding wall itself included in the city wall was added to the dungeon at the end of the 12th century. Unfortunately no pictures of the different castles from this period are available.

After belonging to the House of Amboise, then being annexed to the royal domain by Louis XI, the viscounty was given to the house of La Trémoille in 1489, that were made dukes later by Charles IX of France. Gabrielle de Bourbon, wife of Louis II de La Trémoille ordered the construction of the chapel built between 1503 and 1509 which is still visible today. The chapel is of flamboyant gothic style for the lower part and influenced by Italian Renaissance for the upper gallery and was designed by several architects including André Amy and Jean Chahureau. It was designated as a collegiate church in 1515 by Pope Leo X and hosted a relic of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

In 1619, Henri de La Trémoille married Marie de La Tour d'Auvergne. In the year 1628 the duchess and her intendent the sieur d'Iray oversaw the construction of a small pavilion. She then proceeded to order the building of the South pavilion for her apartments in the year 1635 and decided later to build a newer, more luxurious castle in place of the old one. The project was entrusted to Jacques Lemercier, an architect of King Louis XIII and famous for his work on the Château de Richelieu, Versailles, the Louvre, and the Chapel of la Sorbonne in Paris. The construction began in 1638. At the time it was one of the most important castles in France with its 110-meter long façade and its main courtyard (Cour d'honneur) surrounded by 70-metre long galleries.

Text adapted from “Château des Ducs de La Trémoille” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

In the rankings

Château de Thouars ranks #5,477 of 9,040 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #482 of the 787 mapped in France. Founded c. 1650, it is older than 25% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 710 atlas entries founded in the 17th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,067 times in the last 60 days, more than 52% of the atlas. 3 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Angers, 61 km away. It is one of the 73 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of the Loire Valley. See how France compares in the castle statistics.

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