Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The castle of Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine, also known as Château des Rohan, has its origins around 990, when Foulques III d'Anjou erected a first wooden dungeon. This strategic site, located on a promontory overlooking the Manse Valley, was then rebuilt in stone in the 11th century, before being destroyed in 1203 by order of John without Earth, King of England. The fortress was rebuilt between 1212 and 1215 by Guillaume de Pressigny, an ally of Philippe Auguste, and strengthened in the 14th century by Amaury III de Craon, which added courtines and towers.

In the 15th century, under Aymar III of La Rochefoucauld, the castle took its almost definitive form with the addition of polygonal towers and a seigneurial house. It became a property of the Rohan-Guéméné during the Renaissance, welcoming royal figures such as Francis II and Marie Stuart in 1560, or Louis XIV in 1661. After the Revolution, it housed a gendarmerie, then a school from 1848 to 1968, before being transformed into a museum and heritage house from the 1970s.

Architecturally, the castle combines medieval elements (fortified entrance tower, enclosure wall) and Renaissance additions (polygonal towers, two-storey houses). The entrance tower, registered in 1936, retains traces of its original drawbridge. The site, owned by the municipality since 1838, illustrates the evolution of a feudal fortress in place of local memory, with exhibitions dedicated to history, archaeology and popular traditions.

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