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Origin and history

The castle of Azay-sur-Cher, located in the department of Indre-et-Loire, has its origins in the 13th and 14th centuries, during which time the chestnut was owned by the lords of Surgères. In the middle of the 14th century, the English troops, during their occupation of the city, burned down the castle, requiring its reconstruction. This fortified site, still intact in 1700, was a strategic issue before undergoing partial destruction over the centuries.

In 1477, the seigneury of Azay-sur-Cher was ceded by the Clermonts to King Louis XI, who offered it to the collegiate Saint-Martin de Tours. This religious monument retained the property until the French Revolution of 1790. Today, the medieval building remains only a high square tower, accompanied by an octagonal staircase turret at its base, as well as fragments of the enclosure walls and a cylindrical tower to the west. These remains, inscribed in the historic monuments in 1947, bear witness to its turbulent past.

The square tower, the most emblematic element of the castle, has lost its original crowning, but retains a northern facade marked by a turret of hybrid staircase, both octagonal and cylindrical. Following this structure, an old wall of enclosure once housed a housing building, now extinct. These remains, though partial, offer an overview of the defensive and residential architecture of the 14th and 15th centuries in Touraine, a region then marked by the conflicts of the Hundred Years' War and seigneurial rivalries.

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