Château de Saumur (GB) par Clémentine
The panoramic view allowed you to observe the typical houses whom the rooves are made in slate and the walls in Tuffeau (white lime stone).
The Castel of Saumur is built on a rock and overhangs the city because it was first built to be a fortress. Moreover, it's situated by the river Loire which was a strategic point to control the coming and going of people on the river.
The castel is surronded by a stronghold wall made in the 16th century by Duplessis Mornay (governor of Saumur at the time of the reign of Henry IVth). This stronghold can make think about the fortification of Vauban, one century after. Furthermore, the castel is surronded by a ditch. So to get into the castel you have first to cross a fixed bridge ending by a draw bridge.
History from the 14th century
John IInd had 4 sons, so he decided when he was still alive to divide his territory in four parts. His first son heired of the French Kingdom and the three others from the Bery Dukedom, the Burgundy Dukedom and for Louis Ist the County of Anjou. But since the king was worried about equality between his sons, he transformed the County of Anjou in Dukedom. Consequently in 1363, Louis 1st became duke of Anjou and owner of the Castel of Saumur.
So he decided to transformed it from a defensive place to a prince palace. He built the North and West part of the castel. He added to floors to the basis of the North an West towers. Besides, the colour of the basis of the towers and the one of the two upper floor are slightly diffenrent.
When he died his son Louis II achieved his work with the South and East parts of the Castel. Louis II had two sons. The first one died and it is the second one, known as « le Roi René » (the King René) who became Duke of Anjou . He was also among others, Count of Provence and King of Sicily and Naples, and he didn't spent many times in Saumur. But he was famous for organising a tournament called « le pas d'arme ». He had no son so when he died the Dukedom of Anjou came back to the French Crown.
Later in the late XVIth century, Saumur became a protestant city and part of Henry IVth's territory. His right hand man, Duplessis Mornay, became governor of Saumur and settled in the Castel. He first created a stronghold fortification around the castel to make sure to be protected in case of Catholic attacks, since we are in the period of religious war. Then he created an art gallery with like 100 paintings and a library with around 1000 books which was quite a lot for that time!
However, in the 1620's, Louis XIIIth didn't trust him anymore and he was fired. Louis army damaged the castel and a couple of years after it became a place to host militaries who were first hosted in the inhabitants place.
Then, it was used as prison and at the end of the XVIIIth century, it was so damaged by the Vendée war that it was even proposed to demolish it! Fortunately in the early XIXth century, Napoleon Ist who needed jails, decided to transform the castel in a State prison. So the architect made 75 holds split in 3 stairs ans 3 aisles. This lasted a couple of months and afterwards the castel belonged to the War ministery and was used as a storage of arms and munitions with around 75 tonnes of gunpowder. Consequently the inhabitants of Saumur were really frigthened of an explosion of the castel.
Finally in the early XXth century, the castel was bought by the city of Saumur and restored to be used as a museum. It sheltered an exhibition about horses and another one about the history of the city.
Today the castel is closed for the next five years because of safety reasons. And from the early XXth century, the architects have always tried to rebuild it as it was at the time of the King René. Indeed, he described it as a Castel from a Fairytale!
