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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

Le Nouveau Logis de Candes-Saint-Martin, also known as Château Neuf, replaces a 17th-century building built in 1682 by Michel Amelot de Gournay to serve as a summer residence for the Archbishops of Tours. This first castle, less austere than the Old Neighbor's Castle, was sold in 1781 by the Archbishop of Conzié to finance works at the priory of Grandmont-lès-Tours. A watercolour of 1699 offered the only known visual testimony, although its fidelity remained uncertain.

Destroyed in 1820 after its acquisition by the architect Alexandre-Jean-Baptiste Cailleau (mayor of Saumur), the castle was rebuilt at the beginning of the 19th century in a neo-classical style, slightly back from the hillside. The new building, in tufted and slate, adopts a U-shaped plan with a northern facade decorated with a circular forebody and an unusual baroque pediment for the area. The 17th century communes, the tower of Aubigny (vestige of medieval ramparts) and the Gallo-Roman cellars dug in the rock bear witness to the historical strata of the site.

Ranked a Historic Monument in 1977 for its facades, roofs and interior decorations (woodworks and mythological wallpapers of the nineteenth century), the estate has been owned by the Pignet family since 2009. After three years of renovation, it now hosts a high-end tourist residence (Candes Art & Spa), with 32 rooms and private spaces for events. The site also preserves traces of its wine past, like a press connected to the cellars by a drain carved in the rock.

The present castle incorporates disparate elements: the 17th-century communes bordering the entrance courtyard, the restored Gothic Revival tower in the 19th century, and the 18th-century lambris from the Trocheille castle in Couziers. Its strategic location, overlooking the confluence of Loire-Vienne, made it a place of religious power and then a symbol of local heritage, between Gallo-Roman memory and architectural reinventions.

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