Château de Plessis-lez-Tours
La Riche, France
Open to visitors
The interior is normally open, possibly ticketed.
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The royal Château de Plessis-lèz-Tours, located in La Riche in the Loire Valley, is the fragmentary remains of a late Gothic residence built by King Louis XI in the fifteenth century. Originally configured as a three-winged structure in a U-shape, the château was devastated during the French Revolution when approximately three-quarters of the building were demolished in 1796. Louis XI favored the residence until his death there on 30 August 1483; the room where he died survives with its original late fifteenth-century wooden linenfold panelling. The château also witnessed a pivotal 1589 meeting between King Henry III and the future King Henry IV that forged their alliance against the Catholic League. The surviving wing preserves evidence of the king's spiritual devotion through paintings and sculpture dedicated to Saint Francis of Paola, as well as the notorious iron suspension cages used for prisoner detention. The remaining structure, long repurposed as a dairy and buckshot factory, has been protected as a monument historique inscrit since 1927.
Movement
- Type
- château
- Heritage
- monument historique inscrit
- Place
- La Riche, France
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Location