The Loire valley castles

The Loire castles evoke the color of slate and the stone of tuffeau.
The inheritance of our area is fabulous on the architectural and historical level. Numbers these castles are in fact rather far away from the Loire; they are dispersed in Blésois, Touraine, Anjou, Berry and Orléanais.
Their origins correspond to requirements of defense. Indeed they are built on strengthened natural sites, almost always with the crossroads of waterways and terrestrial, on heights where people can supervise the neighbourhoods with kilometers with the round and stop the progression of the enemy.
The first constructions are keeps of which it still remains of many vestiges (Montbazon, Loches, etc). A great part of them were built by the frightening count of Anjou Foulques Nerra, at the end of Xème century time to which it disputed the control of Touraine to the counts of Blois.
These fortresses will play then a paramount strategic part in the fight between the crown of France and the Plantagenêt dynasty.
Thereafter, the majority of these monuments will be rebuilt, often offering contrast seizing d'un new home frame very close to an old tower.
In these pages we will be delayed more particularly on the buildings of the Loire valley.<