Château de Montrichard: A Medieval Fortified Castle in France
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- French
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page9 sections
History
Château de Montrichard is a former fortified castle in Montrichard, France, whose construction began in the early eleventh century when Fulk III, Count of Anjou, established a wooden tower on the site. The strongpoint supported his struggle against Eudes II, Count of Blois, and guarded a crossing of the Cher on the route between Blois and Loches.
An Angevin strongpoint
The castle stood at a strategically important meeting point. The Cher crossing was probably first a ford and later a bridge, while routes between Bourges and Tours and between Paris and Spain also converged in the area. Roger le Diable, lord of Montrésor, was the first person entrusted with the castle’s custody.
During the eleventh century, the lords of Amboise, originally loyal to the counts of Anjou, became autonomous and entered conflicts with neighboring powers. Hugues I of Amboise seized Montrichard fortress in 1109 and enlarged it. The stone donjon, the principal fortified tower of a medieval castle, associated with this rebuilding dates from around 1120.
War and changing lordship
In 1188, Philip II of France, known as Philip Augustus, besieged Montrichard and partially destroyed the castle. During the Hundred Years’ War, the long conflict between England and France, English forces attacked it on 6 September 1356 during the Black Prince’s chevauchée, a large mounted military raid.
Montrichard and Amboise were the two principal fortresses of the Amboise family throughout the Middle Ages. At the end of that period, Péronelle of Amboise transferred the fortress through marriage into the Harcourt family. In 1461, Louis XI exchanged his lordships of Gournay and La Ferté-en-Bray with Guillaume of Harcourt-Montgomery, Count of Tancarville and Viscount of Melun, for the lordship and castle of Montrichard. Louis XI later relinquished the property, but chose the castle and the Church of Sainte-Croix for the marriages of his daughters Anne of France in 1474 and Joan of France in 1476.
Decline and protection
After several further changes of ownership, the fortress had become uninhabitable by the seventeenth century. In 1589, Henry IV of France ordered the upper four metres of the castle walls to be dismantled, reducing the fortress’s defensive strength if it came into enemy hands. The ruins have been protected as a French historic monument since 14 July 1877.
Remains
Château de Montrichard now survives as a ruin in the heart of Montrichard. It occupies a ridge parallel to the Cher, along the southern edge of the narrow plateau between the Loire and the Cher. The remains stand at the plateau’s edge above the river and the medieval town, while the borough extends along the Cher below the fortress at the bridgehead.
Fortifications and principal tower
Stone donjon
The square stone donjon dates from the early twelfth century and is articulated by projections resembling buttresses. It was modeled on the fortress at Loches. Its three levels had different functions: the ground floor served as storage, the middle floor contained residential rooms, and the upper floor ended in a crenellated wall-walk beneath the roof.
Enclosing defenses
The donjon is surrounded by a chemise, a protective casing closely enclosing a fortified structure, and by a second enceinte, or defensive enclosing circuit. The wider fortifications included curtain walls, round towers, and a drawbridge. Later centuries brought additional rooms for the residence of the lords, while the dismantling ordered in 1589 changed the surviving defensive structure.
Archaeological collections
The Donjon Museums display archaeological finds from the surrounding region, connecting the surviving tower with material recovered from the wider area.
