Château de Saumur

History

The first fortifications at Saumur were built in 962, when Theobald I, Count of Blois, fortified the Benedictine abbey of Saint-Florent, which held the relics of Saint Florent, an Anjou evangelist who died in 360, to protect the relics and the abbey from the Counts of Anjou. Little is known about this early castle.

In 1026, the rivalry between the Counts of Blois and Anjou climaxed when Fulk Nerra seized the castle, burned it down, and drove out the monks, who were faithful to the Count of Blois, across the River Thouet. Throughout the remainder of the 11th century, Château de Saumur was controlled by the Counts of Anjou. In 1067, the castle was destroyed by fire, and in 1068, Fulk le Réchin, Count of Anjou, ordered the construction of a keep, roughly rectangular and reinforced with buttresses. It measured about 19 meters by 17 meters, with walls nearly three meters thick, and stood on a platform of piled earth. Henry II of England rebuilt the castle in the later 12th century.

In 1127, Fulk V arranged for the marriage of his son, Geoffrey, to Empress Matilda, daughter of the King Henry I of England. In 1129, Fulk left for the Holy Land, and Geoffrey, who was called Plantagenet for the yellow flower he wore, became the Count of Anjou as a teenager. The son of Geoffrey and Matilda eventually became King Henry II of England, as well as Count of Anjou. Henry II, his wife Eleanor, and their sons, Richard (the Lionheart) and John, came many times to Saumur. In 1188, Henry held his Christmas court at the castle. After his death in 1189, the rivalry between the Plantagenets and the Capetians continued.

A model of the castle in the museum.

In 1203, King Philip II Augustus of France seized the keep after the defeat of King John, and the castle became part of the royal domain. It was probably then that he decided to transform it into a castle by surrounding it with four drum towers connected by curtain walls, and Saumur became the Capetians' most advanced fortified stronghold in their reconquest of Anjou. In 1227, Louis IX was in residence at Saumur and added to the fortress. From there, in 1230, he left to retake Angers, Henry III withdrew to England, and Anjou, including Château de Saumur, was reintegrated into the French royal property. On June 24th, 1241, Louis IX returned to Saumur to hold his great court, later called the "Nonpareille" (peerless), on the occasion of the knighting of his young brother Alphonse, who was about to take possession of his Poitou apanage.

In 1368, during the Hundred Years' War, Louis I of Anjou, brother of King Charles V, began to transform the fortress into a palace, rivaling his brothers' architectural projects, the Dukes of Berry and Burgundy. The first work, from 1368, was the north wing along the banks of the Loire River, with a great stateroom and chapel. The building, flanked by two towers and backed onto the Romanesque tower where the hall was located, had two floors. Lead for roofing was attained from the Château d'Angers, Chinon, and Loudun. In 1380, the Romanesque tower was mostly demolished before the west tower and wing were constructed. In addition, the south wing and new châtelet entrance were added towards the end of the 14th century, which completely enclosed the quadrilateral castle.

The château was famous enough by about 1410 to appear in the background of the September page of the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, one of the most celebrated illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages, which shows it as a fairytale castle. René of Anjou, the last Duke of Anjou, lived at Saumur from time to time and called it his "château d'amour," until his death in 1480, when it reverted to the crown. His daughter, Margaret of Anjou, married King Henry VI of England.

The view over the Loire and the town of Saumur.

The castle stood empty for about a century. In 1589, during the Wars of Religion, King Henri IV, who was then a Protestant, made Philippe Duplessis-Mornay the governor of Saumur, which had just been assigned to the Protestant party as a safe haven. Duplessis-Mornay strengthened the château with outer ramparts, a design ahead of its time that predates the works of the military engineer Vauban by nearly a century. In the 1600s, one of the four wings around the courtyard collapsed, and in 1621, the château became an army barracks. In the following centuries, the château held political prisoners, who were imprisoned without trial, and, from the 1780s, British sailors who were prisoners of war.

In 1793, the army of the Vendée ransacked the castle after seizing it. The damage was so severe that in 1797, the army prepared plans for its demolition. As Napoleon Bonaparte passed through Saumur in 1808, he decided to convert the castle into a state prison, which saved it from definitive ruin. The work was entrusted to the civil engineer Charles-Marie Normand, and it lasted from 1811 to 1814 and cost the considerable sum of 265,000 francs. Normand filled in the windows and a good number of the staircases and passages, and created 75 cells spread across three floors in the three wings of the structure. The state prisoners held at Saumur included French opponents of Napoleon, an officer of the Pope, a Spanish minister who had refused to swear the oath to King Joseph, an English baron, and a Dutch officer, and they were freed during the Restoration, only a few months after they arrived.

Château de Saumur seen from across the Loire.

After the restoration of the monarchy, in 1814, Château de Saumur was assigned to the French Ministry of War, which used it as an arms and ammunition depot until 1889. In 1906, the town of Saumur purchased the castle back from the state, and the municipal museum opened to the public, partly restored, in 1912. Subsequent renovation work was carried out, including restoring rooms to their original sizes, reopening staircases, fireplaces, and windows, and adding sculpted décor. On June 19th and 20th, 1940, during the Battle of France, officer cadets from Saumur's Cavalry School and other French troops held the Loire crossings for two days against two German divisions, an action often considered one of the first acts of the French Resistance. In June 1940, the château was hit by more than a hundred shells, which caused a great deal of damage in the north wing, and it was repaired in the following years. The restoration of the south wing and west tower, begun in 1997, restored the dormer windows, gables, lookout, and loggias of the only surviving Valois château. In 2001, part of the northern rampart collapsed, and it was rebuilt by 2007.

Castle Highlights

Château de Saumur resides majestically above the Loire River in the town of Saumur. Its white tuffeau stone, medieval drum towers with machicolations, and blue-colored roofs convey a sense of power and romance directly from a fairytale. I highly recommend planning some time to study the inner courtyard walls, as there are numerous sculptures of animals to discover along the walls that would probably get overlooked when casually walking through the area.

A dog sculpture in the courtyard.

The castle is open to the public, and you may explore its interior at your own pace or as part of a guided tour that explores most rooms while providing informative history. Moreover, an extensive collection of decorative ceramics, tapestries, and various equestrian-related artifacts adorn the castle. The château houses a museum of decorative arts and the Museum of the Horse (Musée du Cheval). Saumur is famous for its horses, equestrian center, and military cavalry school. The grounds and the views from the ramparts are free to visit.

To supplement your visit to Château de Saumur, I suggest you drive over the bridge and Loire River to get magnificent views of the castle and town from the opposite bank.