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Origin and history

The painted cellars are a set of galleries dug in the limestone hillside of Chinon, in the department of Indre-et-Loire. These cellars, operated between the 12th and 15th centuries, provided the white or yellow tuft used to build Chinon Castle and the city walls. The site extends under Fort Saint-Georges and bears witness to medieval extractive activity, which is essential for local urban planning.

The entrance to the cellars is marked by a 15th or 16th century door, decorated with a broken arch and reinforced by pillars. Inside, the galleries form a maze of corridors and halls, vestiges of extraction areas. Stalactites and calcite deposits tinted with limonite by the oozing water characterize parts of the site. The name "painted cellars" comes from missing frescoes, mentioned by François Rabelais in his Fifth Book (chapter XXXV), which described Bacchic scenes.

The site is mentioned in the Pantagruel de Rabelais, confirming its use as wine cellar from the end of the 15th century. The entrance was listed as a historic monument on April 19, 1932. In the 21st century, the cellars house the chapters of the Confrérie des bons entonneurs rabelaisiens, owner of the premises, thus perpetuating a link between troglodytic heritage and local culture.

The painted cellars also illustrate the evolution of extraction techniques in Touraine, where tuffeau was a major resource for regional architecture. Their preservation allows us to study medieval stone-cutting methods and the adaptation of quarries into storage spaces, especially for wine, a historical economic activity of the region.

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