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Origin and history

The White Tower of Issoudun is an ancient castle tower, built at the end of the 12th century by order of Richard the Lion Heart, Duke of Aquitaine and King of England. Built on an artificial mound in the heart of Issoudun, it was completed by Philippe Auguste after its capture in 1202. Its architectural homogeneity would be explained by its rapid construction, on the remains of a 11th century chapel or oratory.

The tower, 28 meters high with walls of 4 meters thick, was initially crowned with heavy. It is one of the first listed monuments in France, protected in 1840. Its name could come either from a local legend evoking a prisoner named Blanche, or from the attachment of the White Queen of Castilla to the city.

Adjacent remains, such as a courtine pierced by murderers and the foundations of an ancient chapel, suggest a complex defensive system. The tower, now owned by the commune, illustrates the rivalries between Plantagenets and Capetians at the hinge of the 12th and 13th centuries.

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