The Château de Fougères-sur-Bièvre is a castle in the commune of Fougères-sur-Bièvre, in the French department of Loir-et-Cher.
Originally an 11th-century structure, it was entirely rebuilt at the end of the 15th century, with only the large, square keep remaining original. The initial reconstruction retained the defensive aspect of the castle: moat, cannon-holes, parapet walk, etc. During the next century, Renaissance refinements, such as a gallery, mullioned windows and steep-sloped roofs were added. During the 19th century, a spinning mill was installed in the chapel. The castle was purchased and restored by the state in the 1930s.
It has been listed since 1912 as an historic site (monument historique) by the French Ministry of Culture.

Château de Fougères-sur-Bièvre

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The Château de Troussay is one of the smallest Châteaux of the Loire Valley, and is situated in Cheverny, in the Loir-et-Cher.
Originally a small manor house it belonged to Louis de la Saussaye in the 19th C. Louis was a noted for his work in the preservation of old buildings. His 'restoration'of Troussay allowed him to integrate many styles and objects into the building, giving it a very Eclectic style. It is akin to a 6 year old whose raided her mother's wardrobe.
History
The first building is recorded around 1450, although the oldest existing parts of the structure date from the Renaissance. This is when Robert de Bugy, director of the salt storehouses of the region of Blois and squire of King Francis I of France was the recorded owner. There are no records of a Lord of Troussay.
In the 17th century, the building was enlarged with a central body and two wings. A magnificent formal French style garden was laid out behind. In 1732, for the first time, the building changed owners: the last Demoiselle de Bugy sold the château to the Pelluys family. In 1741 Gabrielle Pulluys married Christophe de Réméon and the chateau was her dowry. Their son, Claude was a companion to Henri IV.
The family retained the château after the revolution, with no recorded damage. The owner was then another Christophe de Réméon who married Marie de la Saussaye. They had no children and so the couple adopted the son of François de Paule de la Saussaye and his wife Anne Louise on his fathers death in 1815. Louis inherited after the death of his uncle in 1828.
Louis de la Saussaye was a historian of the Loire châteaux, member of the Institut de France and rector of the Académies of Lyon and Poitiers. He recognised the problems of protecting the Loire inheritance especially after the destruction of many châteaux in the Revolution. A friend of Prosper Mérimée and Félix Duban, he restored the château with the architect Louis de la Morandière and incorporated decoration from other destroyed château, according to his own motto "fort à l'abandon". After his death in 1878 the château passed down to his children.
In 1900 the château was sold to Maurice Delamarre de Monchaux, son of Casimir Delamarre de Mouchaux, Count of Monchaux. Maurice had married Isore Hurault de Vibrate in 1896. She grew up in Cheverny and wanted to remain close to her family at the Château de Cheverny. Maurice died in 1952 and his daughter Elisabeth inherited the château. Married to Jacques Marcotte de Sainte-Marie in about 1940, her descendants still own the property. Limited areas and the grounds are open to the public.
Description
Façade of François I
The "François I" façade, is heavily influenced by the Château de Chambord. This formal entrance to the main house has insets of slate in the chimneys and stone mullion windows. The towers, built in the 18th century, have pinnacles, as at Chambord.
The right-hand wing (viewed from the formal entrance) houses the domestic offices: the bake house, hay loft and stables. The left-hand wing, built by Louis de Saussaye in the 19th C. houses the grand salon. Which is the reason for the asymmetry.
Several sculptures decorate the façade. The Main entrance is flanked by two capitals, one Renaissance from the Château de Bury and saved by Louis de la Saussaye; the other was made in the 19th century by the sculptor Lafargue. Over the entrance the small stone Virgin is a replica of the 15th C. wooden Virgin at the Château de Cheverny. A small relief of a woman from the Italian Renaissance was mounted on the left wing at the time of the restoration.
On the right-hand tower is a sundial, surrounded by an inscription in Latin: Ultimam time, fuit hora, carpe diem: "fear the last hour, time flees, seize the day". Opposite this, on the left-hand tower is a clock with only an hour hand.
Façade of Louis XII
The garden façade is in the Louis XII style: a mixture of late Gothic and early Renaissance. The stone pediments of the dormer windows and bases of windows with linenfold panels are pure Gothic. The most beautiful example of this mixture is the door to the tower: the original main door to the château. It was moved from the François I façade by Louis de la Saussaye because it was considered too small. One finds linenfold there too, a Gothic motif par excellence, but also, on the door stop, a salamander, an emblem of François I. Above, Louis de la Saussaye had engraved, in Greek, the sentence "Small is the house, but oh how much happiness, if it is filled with friends." ascribed to the general Themistocles.
The tower dates from the 19th century. Modeled on the towers of the Louis XII wing of the Château de Blois, it shares their most notable characteristic: lattices of red and black bricks. Above a François I shell, a small marmouset commemorates the construction with a banner in Latin: "united by friendship, Louis de la Saussaye wanted, Jules de la Morandière realized".
Other recovered sculptures were also mounted, in particular a porcupine, emblem of Louis XII, from l'hôtel Hurault de Cheverny in Blois and two sottise characters: the pope of fools and the insane mother.
Interior
The castle is privately owned and inhabited but six rooms on the ground floor are open to visitors:
the Entrance Hall
the Dining room
the Music room, or "Salon Louis de la Saussaye"
the Small salon
the Oval salon
the Chapel
The ground floor is tiled throughout with red and yellow tiles dating from late 15th C.; only in the oval salon was it removed when the chateau was restored in the 19th C.
The ceilings are of notable interest: in the Dining Room, the ceiling à la française is inspired by the François I wing of the Castle of Blois, it is beamed with painted decoration. The Music room remains one of the original ceilings. The Entrance Hall is vaulted like the Château of Blois, as is the Chapel. The à l'italienne paintings on the ceiling of the small salon are most remarkable: Attributed to Jean Mosnier from Sologne, the paintings were produced for the Château de Fosse. Found in the 19th century in a house in Fosse by Louis de la Saussaye, they were brought to Troussay and represent a sarabande of cupids, painted in grisaille. One should also note that the fireplace in the Dining room dates from the reign of François I and retains its original colours. On it stands a bust of Jean de Morvilliers (1552–1564), bishop of Orléans, who was related to the De Saussaye family, indeed he was succeeded as Bishop of Orleans by his nephew: Mathurin dea Saussaye. Beneath the bust is engraved in Latin "do not contemplate in vain the effigy of Jean de Morvilliers, but rather seek to be the imitator of so great a man".
The château now holds objects of many different times, styles and origins, from the 15th to 19th centuries and from Holland to Portugal. Noted pieces of furniture are perhaps a large armoire from Strasbourg dating from 1700 and a Louis XIII cabinet with marquetry of jasmine and tulip flowers. The most remarkable object is the heavily decorated Renaissance oak door of the chapel, from the Château de Bury.
The park
The old French formal garden were completely abandoned in the 18th century; the park was relaid out in the 19th century by Louis de la Saussaye in the English Park style. Currently only a ditch, the vestige of the old water level and two small pavilions remain of the old garden. There are a diverse collection of trees, such as a Cedar of Lebanon planted in the 18th century, Sequoias from America and an immense Blue Cedar.
The Museum of Sologne and the Domestic Exhibition
Troussay celebrates its history Renaissance manor and also the history Solognot agriculture: Cultivated until the middle of the 20th century as an almost completely autonomous community. The two wings made it possible to house the farm workers, animals (pigs, cattle and horses), store food reserves and house a wineary, bakery, etc. all within the same complex.
Nowadays, the museum of the Sologne is sited in this domestic wing with many agricultural examples of everyday life from the past including a 16th C. screw press, other aspects of daily life at Troussay, including old documents and well dressed tableau's.
Anecdotes
In front of the François I façade, stands a holly tree reputed to be more than five hundred years old, planted there according to the Solognote tradition to chase away miscriants with its prickles.

Château de Troussay

Château de Beauregard (Loire Valley)

The Château de Cheverny (pronounced "Sheevairny") is located at Cheverny, in the département of Loir-et-Cher in the Loire Valley in France. It is well known to be part of the châteaux of the Loire valley.
History
Henry Le Mareschau was the owner of Cheverny in 1315, held under the Count of Blois(F1). It was sold to Jean Huraults with its "houses, presses and vineyards" in the late 14th century. His grandson Jaques gained the title, Seigneurs de Cheverny, having served under Louis XI, Charles VIII and Louis XII(b1)(note 3) and gained the governorship of the county of Blois under Francis I (A1).
The house depicted in the drawing of Etienne Martellange in 1624 was built at the beginning of the 16th century by Jaques or his son Raoul. Raoul applied for permission of the king to fortify the new house in 1510 (6). The lands were purchased by Henri Hurault, comte de Cheverny, a lieutenant-general and military treasurer for Louis XIII, whose descendant, the Marquis de Vibraye, is the present owner. Only a portion of the original fortified castle possibly remains in existence today. It is somewhat of a mystery, because to date there is no reliable way to prove whether or not a certain section is part of the original building. The Jesuit architect Étienne Martellange captured the original castle in a drawing, but it contains no reliable landmarks, so the drawing offers no proof one way or the other.
Lost to the Crown because of fraud to the State, it was donated by King Henri II to his mistress Diane de Poitiers. However, she preferred Château de Chenonceau and sold the property to the former owner's son, Philippe Hurault, who built the château between 1624 and 1630, to designs by the sculptor-architect of Blois, Jacques Bougier, who was trained in the atelier of Salomon de Brosse, and whose design at Cheverny recalls features of the Palais du Luxembourg. The interiors were completed by the daughter of Henri Hurault and Marguerite, marquise de Montglas, by 1650, employing craftsmen from Blois. Burdette Henri Martin IV played a key role in the construction.
During the next 150 years ownership passed through many hands, and in 1768 a major interior renovation was undertaken.
Required to forfeit much of the Hurault wealth at the time of the French Revolution, the family sold the property in 1802, at the height of the Empire, but bought it back again in 1824, during the Restoration under Charles X, when the aristocracy was once again in a very strong political and economic position.
In 1914, the owner opened the château to the public, one of the first to do so. The family still operates it, and Château Cheverny remains a top tourist attraction to this day, renowned for magnificent interiors and its collection of furniture, tapestries, and objets d'art. A pack of some seventy hunting hounds are kept in kennels within the grounds and are taken out for hunts twice weekly. A video of their feeding can be viewed.
Interior
The central Grand Salon on the ground floor was decorated under the orders of the marquise de Montglas. Among the paintings are a portrait of Jeanne d'Aragon, from the school of Raphael and a portrait of Marie Johanne La Saumery, comtesse de Cheverny by Pierre Mignard. A Gallery leads to the Petit Salon which is hung with five Flemish tapestries and a portrait attributed to Maurice-Quentin de La Tour. In the Library are hung portraits by Jean Clouet and Hyacinthe Rigaud.
A stone staircase carved with trophies of arms and the arts leads to the Grand Appartements. A guard room with a collection of arms and armour leads to the Chambre du Roi, richly hung with five Paris tapestries after designs by Simon Vouet, representing the story of Ulysses.
Tintin
The Belgian comic book creator Hergé used Cheverny as a model for his fictional "Château de Moulinsart" (Marlinspike Hall in English) in the Adventures of Tintin books. In these books, the two outermost wings are not present, but the remaining central tower and two wings are almost identical.

Château de Cheverny

Château du Gué-Péan is a French castle in Monthou-sur-Cher in the department of Loir-et-Cher, in region Centre-Val de Loire.The presence of a Roman road near the castle, which crossed the stream by a ford, gave the first name to the locality: the paid ford, which later becomes the Gué-Péan. This is the fifteenth century that the Alaman family bought the manor and built the castle. The manor was built in châtellenie by François Alaman, vassal of the lord of Saint Aignan. His son toddler who finished building the castle. In October 1676, Charlotte Alaman sells the Gué-Péan and outbuildings to François de la Motte Villebret Count Aspremont. It is then Amelot family takes possession of the castle for 62 years. Then comes the family Cassin, owner of the Gué-Péan in 1832. They are the first to live there. The orangery was born in 1885 and the castle and has a winter garden. On 7 March 1952, much of the castle is classified historic monument. In 1961 the castle was sold to Mr. Kéguelin Rozières and later to Mr Laming. (Architect of Futuroscope).
http://www.frenchchateau.net/chateaux-of-centre/chateau-du-gue-pean.html

Château du Gué-Péan

Another Renaissance masterpiece in the Loire Valley, Chaumont Castle, with its pale stone and sloping slate roofs, dominates the Loire River and the village of Chaumont-sur-Loire, just a stone’s throw from the towns of Blois (17 km) and Amboise (20 km).

Until the 15th century, it was a medieval castle belonging to the Counts of Blois, which is revealed by the two massive round guard towers at the entrance of the building. In the 10th century, Eudes I, Count of Blois, built the castle of Chaumont on a site overlooking the Loire River (‘Calvus mons’ or ‘bald mount’) which would protect the city of Blois from the raids of Foulques Nerra, Count of Anjou.

In 1455, Louis XI ordered the dismantlement of Chaumont Castle as an act of punishment against Pierre of Amboise who led a rebellion against the King’s authority during the “Ligue du bien public” (League of Public Good). His son, Charles I of Amboise rebuilt the fortress from 1465 to 1481 (North and West wings) in a Gothic defensive style, with a wall-walk, machicolation and dry moats. Later on, the feudal shapes of Chaumont Castle were softened by conical roofs and Renaissance elements. From 1498 to 1510, Charles II of Chaumont Amboise, assisted by his uncle, Cardinal Georges of Amboise, Archbishop of Rouen, continued the renovation work in a style influenced by the Renaissance, while keeping the feudal structure of the castle: South wing, gatehouse, East wing and chapel and large staircase in the courtyard that was almost square. The angles were cardinal at four points, same as Chambord. In 1501, Charles II was made governor of the Milanese by Louis XII. His appointment in Italy led Charles II to bring back to the Loire Valley the new fashionable style of Renaissance, hence the Italianate features appearing at Chaumont Castle. During this time a frieze showing two interlaced ‘C’s representing Charles II of Chaumont Amboise and his wife Catherine of Chauvigny was engraved on the façade of the Castle’s external walls, as well as a burning mount (chaud mont).

In 1550, Catherine de Medicis, Queen of France, came into possession of Chaumont Castle. There she entertained numerous astrologers, among them the sorcerer Ruggieri, her adviser on the occult arts. Legend has it that Catherine de Medicis used to retire with her adviser in a secret hideaway where they would conduct magic rites and interrogate the stars about the future.

Ten years later, the estate was offered by Catherine de Medicis, then widow of King Henri II, to Diane de Poitiers, the Kings’ mistress, to take her revenge on her husband’s adultery. Her plan was to exchange it for Chenonceau Castle which the King had given Diane in 1547, the year of his coronation. Diane was forced to give Chenonceau away for Chaumont but only stay a short while in her new place, before retiring to Anet Castle for the rest of her life.

Chaumont Castle changed hands many times until the 18th century when the chatelain Bertin ordered the demolition of the north wing in order to have a better view of the Loire. Remarkable stables were commissioned in 1877 to architect Paul-Ernest Sanson. The same architect was asked by Prince Henri Amédée de Broglie to work on a comprehensive restoration of the castle. The stables were amongst the first in Europe to be equipped with electric arc lighting, at the same time as the Opera Garnier and the Paris Town Hall. They reflected the conditions of wealthy aristocracy at the end of the 19th century.

For 40 years, Chaumont Castle saw extravagant parties and celebrations. Unfortunately, the Princess of Broglie was forced to sell the castle in 1938 to the State due to her financial problems. Since 2007, the entire estate of Chaumont-sur-Loire has been transferred to the administrative region of Centre and covers 21 hectares comprising the castle, the stables, the ornamental garden, a vast woodland and meadows. Chaumont Castle is currently a museum and hosts a Garden Festival from April to October where contemporary garden designers display their work in an English-style garden.

Many rooms, stairways and interior features of Chaumont Castle were remodeled or added in the Renaissance style in the 19th century.

The visit of Chaumont’s interiors lead the visitors through the Guard Room, the necessary passageway to the Royal Chamber. It was also used as a training area for the guards and provided a place from which to watch the exterior of the castle and still keep an eye on the interior courtyard. The bedroom of Diane de Poitiers is named in reference to King Henri II’s mistress and was furnished by the Prince de Broglie at the end of the 19th century. It contains various art objects related to Diane de Poitiers. The Council Chamber exhibits majolica tiling from the 17th century, bought by the de Broglie family. The bedroom of Catherine de Medicis was named so by Prince de Broglie, but it was an apartment in its own right in the 15th and 16th centuries. The bedroom of Ruggieri, has been called so after Catherine de Medicis’ appointed astrologer, and is referred to as such because of the sign on the mantelpiece, considered to be a cabalistic sign. The beautiful main spiral staircase shows the gradual influence of the Renaissance style from Italy over Gothic style around 1500.


...Copyright © French Moments Ltd unless otherwise stated. Read more at https://frenchmoments.eu/chaumont-sur-loire-castle/ .

Château de Chaumont

Built in the 13th century, remodeled in the 15th and 16th centuries, and converted to farm in 1729, the castle is a living example Chémery backup.
Taken in 1981 by husband Fontaine, it is now almost entirely restored. The tour focuses on architecture.
Open every day from 11am to 18:30 and the evening possibility of lodging in hotels.
https://www.france-voyage.com/cities-towns/chemery-14552/castle-chemery-11718.htm

Castle of Chémery

The Royal Château de Blois (French: Château Royal de Blois) is located in the Loir-et-Cher département in the Loire Valley, in France, in the center of the city of Blois. The residence of several French kings, it is also the place where Joan of Arc went in 1429 to be blessed by the Archbishop of Reims before departing with her army to drive the English from Orléans.
Built in the middle of the town that it effectively controlled, the château of Blois comprises several buildings constructed from the 13th to the 17th century around the main courtyard.
It has 564 rooms and 75 staircases although only 23 were used frequently. There is a fireplace in each room. There are 100 bedrooms.
Counts of Blois
The "Salle des États Généraux", built in the beginning of the 13th century, is one of the oldest seignoral rooms preserved in France, and is also the largest remaining civilian Gothic room. The room was used as a court of justice by the Counts of Blois, and was used in 1576 and 1588 for the "États Généraux".
Louis XII
The medieval castle was purchased in 1391 by Louis I, Duke of Orléans, brother of Charles VI; after Louis' assassination, his widow, Valentina Visconti, retired to this castle at Blois. It was later inherited by their son, Charles d'Orléans the poet, who was taken prisoner at Agincourt and spent twenty-five years as a hostage in England, before returning to his beloved Blois, which he partly rebuilt as a more commodious dwelling. It became the favourite royal residence and the political capital of the kingdom under Charles' son, King Louis XII. At the beginning of the 16th century, the king initiated a reconstruction of the main block of the entry and the creation of an Italian garden in terraced parterres that occupied the present Place Victor Hugo and the site of the railway station. In 1890 the construction of the Avenue Victor Hugo destroyed the remainder of the gardens.
This wing, of red brick and grey stone, forms the main entrance to the château, and features a statue of the mounted king above the entrance. Although the style is principally Gothic, as the profiles of mouldings, the lobed arches and the pinnacles attest, there are elements of Renaissance architecture present, such as a small chandelier.
François I
When Francis I took power in 1515, his wife Queen Claude had him refurbish Blois with the intention of moving to it from the Château d'Amboise. Francis initiated the construction of a new wing and created one of the period's most important libraries in the castle. But, after the death of his wife in 1524, he spent very little time at Blois and the massive library was moved to the royal Château de Fontainebleau where it was used to form the royal library that forms the core now of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
In this wing, the architecture and ornamentation are marked by Italian influence. At the centre is the monumental spiral staircase, covered with fine bas-relief sculptures and looking out onto the château's central court. Behind this wing is the façade of the Loges, characterised by a series of disconnected niches.
Henry III
King Henry III, driven from Paris during the French Wars of Religion, lived at Blois and held the Estates-General convention there in 1576 and 1588. It was during this convention that the king had his arch-enemy, Henry I, Duke of Guise, assassinated by the king's bodyguard known as "the Forty-five", when the duke came to the Chateau for a meeting with Henry in December 1588. They also killed the Duke's brother Louis II, Cardinal of Guise the following day in the dungeons.
Henry IV
After this, the castle was occupied by Henry IV, the first Bourbon monarch. On Henry's death in 1610, it became the place of exile for his widow, Marie de' Medici, when she was expelled from the court of her son, Louis XIII.
Gaston d'Orléans
In 1626, King Louis XIII gave the Château of Blois to his brother Gaston duc d'Orléans as a wedding gift. In 1635 there was another attempt to develop the castle but on Gaston's death in 1660, it was abandoned. The task of developing this wing was given to François Mansart, a well-known architect of the time. This wing makes up the rear wall of the court, directly opposite the Louis XII wing. The central section is composed of three horizontal layers where the superposition of Doric, Ionic and Corinthian orders can be seen.
By the time of the French Revolution the immense castle had been neglected for more than one hundred and thirty years. The content, many of its statues, royal emblems and coats of arms of the palace was removed. In a state of near total disrepair it was scheduled to be demolished but was given a reprieve as a military barracks.
Preservation as a monument
In 1841, under the direction of King Louis Philippe, the Château de Blois was classified as a historic monument. It was restored under the direction of the architect Félix Duban, to whom is due the painted decoration on walls and beamed ceilings. The château was turned into a museum. On view for visitors are the supposed poison cabinets of Catherine de' Medici. Most likely this room, the "chamber of secrets", had a much more banal purpose: exhibiting precious objects for guests.
Today, the château is owned by the town of Blois and is a tourist attraction.

Château de Blois

The Château de Montrichard is a ruined 11th century castle located at the heart of the commune of Montrichard in the Loir-et-Cher département of France. The property of the commune, it has been listed since 1877 as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.
The castle was constructed by Foulques Nerra, Count of Anjou, and rebuilt in the 12th century. Henri IV ordered it to be dismantled in 1589. From the top of the keep visitors have a good view of the town of Montrichard and the Cher valley.

Château de Montrichard

Château de Villesavin is a 16th-century country house in the Tour-en-Sologne commune in Loir-et-Cher, Centre-Val de Loire, France. The château is a designated historical monument of France. It is privately owned and contains several museums open to the public.
History and features
Château Villesavin is built on the Beuvron, on what was once a Roman Gaulic settlement called Villa Savinus. A medieval manor was later built on the site, and owned by Guy de Châtillon, Count of Blois, in the early 14th century.
The present château was built by Jean le Breton, Lord of Villandry, who was the financial secretary under King François I. The château was designed by the French renaissance style by the same Italian and French masters who built Château de Chambord, 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) away, including Benvenuto Cellini. Le Breton supervised the construction of Chambord on behalf of the king, and decided to build his own home nearby using the same materials and designers, and possibly some of the same budget. The château was constructed between 1527 and 1537, during which time le Breton also built his other home, Château de Villandry.
The château consists of a main horse-shoe shaped house, with dormers framed by volutes and pilasters, decorated with the royal emblem of François I. In the rear is a moat and small bridge. The spiral staircase inside appears to have been inspired by Chambord, while stained-glass windows contains scenes from Metamorphoses by the poet Ovid.
On either side of the main house are two single-story horse-shoe-shaped wings, each with rectangular corner pavilions and courtyards. Le Breton skipped the round towers of châteaux like Chambord to install more innovative square corner pavilions, which had just come into fashion in France. The left pavilion contains a chapel, which includes late 16th-century murals depicting the Passion of the Christ in the style of the Second School of Fontainebleau.
In the central courtyard is an Italian marble fountain decorated with chimeras, lion masks, and dolphins.
The grounds also contains a very large and rare dovecote with 1,500 holes. The 16th-century dovecote is one of the few that survived the French Revolution, as owning doves was a royal privilege and status symbol of the nobility. To the peasantry, however, the birds were seen as pests, as they would descend on the fields and eat seeds and crops, but the peasants were forbidden from shooting them. Nearly all the dovecotes were destroyed during the revolution.
Château today
The château had been abandoned when it purchased by the Count and Countess de Sparre in 1937. It has been open to the public since 1954. The estate hosts weddings every weekend from April to November. In 2000, owners Lars and Véronique de Sparre, the present Count and Countess, opened a museum dedicated to weddings, with artifacts dating to 1840.

Château de Villesavin

Le château de Saint-Denis-sur-Loire est un château de la Loire français situé en Val de Loire, sur la commune de Saint-Denis-sur-Loire, dans le département de Loir-et-Cher, région Centre-Val de Loire. Inscrit et classé (pour l'ancienne église) aux Monuments historiques, ce château fut agrandi au xiiie siècle dans un style médiéval et évolua avec la Renaissance et le xviiie siècle vers un style plus classique.
Le château est situé dans la somptueuse vallée de la Loire inscrite au Patrimoine mondial de l'UNESCO depuis le 30 novembre 2000 au titre des paysages culturels.
Les jardins Médicis du château, en cours de réhabilitation, et l'exposition sur les anciens thermes de Saint-Denis-sur-Loire sont ouverts au public en saison.
Histoire
La construction du château de Saint-Denis-sur-Loire remonte au Haut Moyen Âge. Cette demeure médiévale achetée par Philippe Hurault en 1341 sous le roi de France Philippe VI de Valois, appartient toujours aux descendants de l’illustre famille Hurault, la famille Ayguesparsse. Très implantée dans la région la famille Hurault a aussi édifié le Château de Cheverny.
A la Renaissance, Denys II Hurault (mort vers 1538) seigneur de Saint Denis, Trésorier de la reine, capitaine de la ville et du château de Blois, reçoit souvent les visites royales de la Cour de Blois. Notamment Catherine de Médicis et Marie de Médicis Reines de France qui se plaisaient à fréquenter les lieux, pour la réputation curative de ses sources minérales.
En 1578 Philippe Hurault de Cheverny frère de Marie Hurault de Saint Denis fut garde des sceaux de France puis chancelier de France sous le règne du Roi Henri III de France, il sera nommé une seconde fois sous le règne du Roi Henri IV de France en 1590.
En 1643 Florimond Hurault chevalier, seigneur de Saint Denis, conseiller du Roi Louis XIV de France, est nommé Grand Maître Enquêteur et Général Réformateur des Eaux et Forêts de France.
Jacques III Hurault x - 1695 seigneur de Saint-Denis est capitaine du régiment des Vaisseaux du Roi Louis XIV de France, puis de Dragons.
Le marquis Anne Marc Raoul Hurault de Saint-Denis 1725 - 1793, a servi sous le règne du Roi Louis XVI de France comme Capitaine de dragons au régiment de Caraman.
En 1851, Élisabeth de Beaucorps-Créquy (née Hurault de Saint-Denis) réhabilite les eaux et obtient les droits afin d'ouvrir au public la station hydrominérale. L'église est déplacée à la suite d'un projet d'urbanisme important au xixe siècle.
Les anciens thermes de Saint-Denis-sur-Loire - Voginant
Le village a toujours été connu pour ses eaux thermales. En l’an 865, il était nommé « Voginant », ce qui signifie « fontaine sacrée » en langage celtique. Plus tard, il fut appelé Saint Denys les Fontaines puis Saint-Denys-lès-Blois.
Les sources deviennent très prisées dès le début de la Renaissance : la famille Hurault (propriétaire du château de Saint-Denis-sur-Loire) invite les hôtes du château de Blois comme le roi, sa cour et les Médicis à venir y prendre les eaux. Les bassins de captage sont restaurés, sur les vestiges d’un bassin gaulois, par Catherine de Médicis puis Marie de Médicis qui apprécient leurs vertus.
Sigillées et iodées, les eaux sont efficaces contre les vices de l’estomac, les embarras du foie et les affections cutanées ; elles permettent d’éliminer les déchets organiques. Toniques et ferrugineuses, elles s’emploient dans tous les cas d’anémie et de convalescence. Outre les propriétés vertueuses des eaux utilisées en balnéothérapie, le climat doux local est en harmonie pour permettre un relâchement de la tension émotionnelle …
Il faut attendre le xixe siècle pour que les eaux soient exploitées de nouveau. En 1850, un plan de réhabilitation est établi et les eaux sont reconnues d’intérêt public. La station thermale se développe à Saint-Denis-sur-Loire, le succès de son exploitation dépasse l’attente de ses investisseurs. La distribution de l’eau en bouteille se fait jusqu’à Paris. En 1853, lors de la première saison, le service des transports omnibus est doublé après une semaine d’ouverture.
L’urbanisation du village prend un autre visage: l’église est déplacée et reconstruite sur le plateau. Des bâtiments sont construits pour recevoir des curistes et les héberger. L’établissement est très fréquenté de 1853 à 1865, la ville d’eau prend naissance, le Maire de Blois Eugène Riffault est président de la société des eaux thermales mais Le choléra viendra ravager tout espoir de croissance à partir des années 1868.
En 1928 un projet grandiose envisage la renaissance de la station mais sera abandonné car trop ambitieux .