The Loire valley castles

The area of the castles of the Loire valley extends over three ancient provinces : Orléanais, Touraine and Anjou, and down as far as the north of Berry.

It is outlined around the great loop which the Loire forms, moving up towards the northwest, from Gien to Orléans, then down to Anjou.

The calamity of the civil war, with a religious pretext, bloodied the Loire valley in the second half of the sixteenth century, but did not jeopardise the prodigiuos expansion of the region which, even after the return of power to the Ile de France, which had begun under the reign of Francis I, kept its privileges of Royal seat.

It is true to say that the castles of the Loire valley would not be the same without the sky, the landscape and settings : forests well-stocked with game for the royal hunts, providing wood for joiners, cabinetmakers and wheelwrights, pasture for the flocks, limestone plateaus providing quarriers ond stonecutters with materials for abbeys, churches, ramparts and castles.

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