Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château du Coudray-Montpensier, located on the road between Chinon and Seuilly en Touraine, finds its origins in the 11th century as a simple fortified residence. In the 14th century, Pierre de Bournan began his stone reconstruction (1401-1422), building a three towered house body surrounded by moat. Joan of Arc stayed there in 1429 before meeting Charles VII in Chinon. The estate, originally owned by the Montsoreau, successively passed to the Marmande, Sainte-Maure, and then to the Bournan, which transformed the fortress into a seigneurial residence.

In the 15th century, Louis Bâtard de Bourbon (natural son of Charles I of Bourbon) and his wife Jeanne de France, natural daughter of Louis XI, embellished the castle between 1480 and 1490. They were inspired by the château de Montpensier, using tuffeau stone and mâchicoulis, but the works remained unfinished after Louis' death in 1486. The construction accounts (1489-1492) reveal nearly 1,000 workers, including masons, stone tailors and carpenters, working under the direction of Jehan Pourmène. The estate then changed hands through inheritances or sales, passing to Escoubleau, Vallière, and then to La Motte-Baracé until 1908.

In the 18th century, architect Anjubault built three garden terraces north of the castle and built stables. In 1736 he created a regular garden with compartments, including an orchard and charmilles. The estate is partially classified as a Historic Monument in 1995 and 1999, covering the castle, moat, commons, terraced gardens and old orchard. In the 20th century, the writer Maurice Maeterlinck (circa 1916) and the aircraft manufacturer Pierre-Georges Latécoère (1930) restored the site with architects Henri Lafargue and Albert Laprade, the latter redrawing the gardens in an Art Deco style. Closed to the public since 2016, the castle preserves medieval defensive elements (bridge-levis, mâchicoulis) and traces of its successive transformations.

The estate is inseparable from its seigneurial history: the Montsoreau, the first attested lords, also founded the Seuilly Abbey in the 11th century. In the 14th century, Louis I of Anjou, Duke of Touraine and King of Sicily, briefly became his owner before giving it to Pierre de Bournan. The chapel, founded in 1452, and the lintels of chimneys (now at the Musée Sainte-Radegonde de Chinon) bear witness to its rich past. The medieval archives describe a monumental site, with workers paid for work or day, and breaks related to religious holidays or weather. Stone tailors, better paid than masons, extract the stone on site or in nearby quarries.

In the 17th century, commons were added in the lower courtyard, while a house body adjacent to the northwest tower (now destroyed) was erected at the end of the 18th century. The dovecote, the orchard girded with charmilles and the boundaries of the estate date mainly from this period. In 1930, the restoration of Latécoère preserved the medieval character while integrating Art Deco elements into the gardens, now abandoned. The estate, a departmental property, embodies nearly a thousand years of history, from medieval lords to modern restorations.

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