France · 15th century
The Château du Rivau is a castle in the village of Lémeré, Touraine, France. In the book of Rabelais' Gargantua, it was given to captain Tolmere as a reward for his victories in the Picrocholean Wars.
In 1429, towards the end of the Hundred Years' War, Joan of Arc and her followers came to fetch horses at Le Rivau. It was renowned for the quality of its equipage and war horses that were raised there. In 1510, François de Beauvau, captain of King Francis I of France, constructed the stables in the outbuildings' courtyard that supplied royal stallions. Those stables became the royal stables of Henry III and housed his stallions.
Since 1992, the new owners have undertaken a renovation campaign to prevent the decay of the castle and winery. It has been classified as a monument historique since 1918 by the French Ministry of Culture.
Text adapted from “Château du Rivau” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Château du Rivau ranks #1,603 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #124 of the 793 mapped in France. Founded 1445, it is older than 49% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 554 atlas entries founded in the 15th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 2,418 times in the last 60 days, more than 74% of the atlas. 8 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Tours, 42 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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