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Origin and history

The Château de Contebault is a village in the municipality of Huismes, in Indre-et-Loire, on a plateau delimited by the valleys of Indre to the north and Vienna to the south. Built in the early 16th century, it was enlarged about a hundred years later, in the 17th century, by the addition of a pavilion and two towers. This monument, initially a strong house surrounded by a now-disappeared enclosure, belonged to both the collegiate church of Candes and that of Saint-Mexme in Chinon. Its history is marked by changes in owners, notably after a court sale in the early seventeenth century to repay the debts of an ambitious owner, whose expansion projects remained unfinished.

The present structure of the castle includes a main house body oriented east-west, a wing in return to the north, and a pavilion grafted to the eastern end. The latter, with three floors and a top, houses a staircase tower with a domed screw, while a square tower flanks its southeast angle. The facades, partially covered with a coating imitating a stone apparatus, keep traces of its defensive past, like murderers. The estate, sold in 1659 to a family that owned it until the mid-19th century, was classified as a historic monument in 1962 for its facades and roofs.

The 16th century primitive mansion consisted of two perpendicular wings, with corbelled cylindrical turrets at northeast and northwest angles. In the 17th century, a square building and a square tower were added to the southeast corner of the main body, accompanied by a cylindrical staircase tower. Jean Ribotteau's initial project, which wanted to transform the mansion into a regular castle flanked by pavilions, failed because of its financial ruin. Only half a project was carried out, leaving traces of the unfinished work of 1599. The fief, attached to the parish of Saint-Mexme de Chinon, illustrates the architectural evolution of seigneurial residences in Touraine between Renaissance and classical times.

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