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Château de Chinon

Castles in Centre-Val de LoireChâteaux of the Loire ValleyHistoric house museums in Centre-Val de LoireMonuments historiques of Indre-et-LoireMuseums in Indre-et-Loire
Royal residences in France
Chinon Château vu depuis la plage
Chinon Château vu depuis la plage

The Château de Chinon is a château located on the north bank of the river Vienne in Chinon, central France. It was founded by Theobald I, Count of Blois. In the 11th century the castle became the property of the counts of Anjou. In 1156 Henry II of England, a member of the House of Anjou, took the castle from his brother Geoffrey, Count of Nantes, after Geoffrey rebelled for a second time. Henry favoured the Château de Chinon as a residence. Most of the standing structure can be attributed to his reign; he died there in 1189. Early in the 13th century, King Philip II of France harassed the English lands in France, and in 1205 he captured Chinon after a siege that lasted several months. Thereafter, the castle remained under French control. When King Philip IV accused the Knights Templar of heresy during the first decade of the 14th century, several leading members of the order were imprisoned there. Used as a residence by Charles VII in the 15th century, the Château de Chinon became a prison in the second half of the 16th century, but then fell out of use and was left to decay. It was recognized as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture in 1840. The castle, which contains a museum, is now owned and managed by the Indre-et-Loire General Council and is a major tourist attraction. It was restored in the early 21st century, at a cost of €14.5 million.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Château de Chinon (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Château de Chinon
Avenue François Mitterrand, Chinon

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Wikipedia: Château de ChinonContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 47.168055555556 ° E 0.23611111111111 °
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Address

Avenue François Mitterrand
37500 Chinon
Centre-Val de Loire, France
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Chinon Château vu depuis la plage
Chinon Château vu depuis la plage
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Chapelle Sainte-Radegonde
Chapelle Sainte-Radegonde

The Chapelle Sainte-Radegonde or Sainte-Radegonde Chapel is an underground structure, a former oratory converted into a chapel, on the slope of the Sainte-Radegonde hill, east of the historic town center of Chinon, in the French department of Indre-et-Loire in the Centre-Val de Loire region. The site has probably been known since antiquity as a well whose waters were reputed to be miraculous; tradition has it that the hermit Jean le Reclus was buried there; the main developments leading to the creation of a proper chapel, however, date back to the 11th or 12th century. The chapel owes its name to Radegonde de Poitiers, who is said to have met Jean on several occasions. The walls are decorated with several murals from different periods and in varying states of preservation; one of them, probably depicting a hunting scene, dates from the end of the 11th century. The precise identity of the figures in this painting is still debated, but it seems likely that they are several members of the House of Plantagenet. The abandoned chapel was sold as bien national during the French Revolution. After being used as a home, along with the adjoining caves, and having had several successive owners, it has belonged to the town of Chinon since 1957. The Musée des Arts et Traditions Populaires du Chinonais has been housed here since 1966. The "Royal Hunt" mural was discovered by chance in 1964, leading to its classification as a monument historique in 1967, along with the rest of the chapel.