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Origin and history

The Collège Saint-Ours de Loches, originally dedicated to Notre-Dame, was founded between 963 and 985 by Geoffroy Grisegonelle, Count of Anjou, to house a relic of the Virgin belt. This first church, built on the remains of a building of the fifth century attributed to Saint Eustache, partially collapsed in the eleventh century. It was rebuilt in the middle of the 12th century under the impetus of prior Thomas Pactius, with a nave retaining 11th century masonries and a western tower erected around 1160. The choir and transepts were entirely rebuilt before the end of the 12th century, incorporating absidioles and a stone vault.

The church, which became parish after the Revolution under the name of Saint Bear, was profoundly changed in the 19th century. Between 1844 and 1855, Alexandre Vestier rebuilt the cross tower and the vaults of the nave, while arcades were pierced to open the lower sides. Ranked as a historic monument in 1840, it has been home since 2005 to the marble tomb of Agnes Sorel, the favorite of Charles VII, who in the 15th century offered a gold reliquary for the belt of the Virgin, now extinct. The college is also linked to the legend of Ludovico Sforza, whose burial remains hypothetical despite recent archaeological excavations (2019-2020).

Architecturally, the building is marked by its two dubes (octogonal towers) and its polychrome Romanesque portal, decorated with medieval sculptures depicting fantastic characters and animals. The nave preserves traces of the 11th and 12th centuries, while the choir, rebuilt at the end of the 12th century, illustrates the transition to gothic. In the 19th century, restorations altered some medieval structures, but also preserved the building, now owned by the municipality of Loches. Its history reflects the religious, political and artistic evolution of the Touraine, from the Carolingian era to the modern era.

The college was a major place of pilgrimage for future mothers, thanks to the measurements of the real belt — white ribbons cut to the dimensions of the relic, supposed to protect childbirth. This devotion, attested until the Revolution, even attracted the queens of France. The monument thus embodies both an exceptional architectural heritage and a spiritual memory linked to Marian cults and local figures, such as Saint Bear de Loches or Agnes Sorel.

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