Chateau de Chinon (Site Internet)

Descriptif:

Le Chateau de Chinon est une forteresse médiévale formidable (environ 500m de long sur 100m de large) qui surplombe la Vienne. Il se situe sur un éperon abrupt de trois cotés. Il est l'oeuvre successive des Comtes de Blois , des Comtes d'Anjou puis des Plantagenets qui devinrent Rois d'Angleterre et enfin des Rois de France.

C'est dans le Château de Chinon que le Roi de France Charles VII a rencontré pour la première fois Jeanne d'Arc.

English Description:

Sitting high on a plateau, a huge ruined castle dominates the town. The site appears to have been used for a Gallo-Roman castrum. Towards the end of the 4th century, a follower of St Martin, St Mexme, established first a hermitage, and then a monastery on the eastern slope of the town. This foundation flourished in the Early Middle Ages, with a large and highly decorated church, a cloister and a square of canons' residences. Unfortunately the all too familiar Jeanne d'Arc visited the Dauphin CharlesVII in Chinon at the beginning of his reign on March 8, 1429. She recognized him hiding among his court members in spite of his disguise, which he put on to test her. She helped him reconquer his kingdom from the English invader. For almost a hundred years, Chinon profited from the fact that it had become the capital of the kingdom. The legendary Joan of Arc was later captured and burnt alive at the stake in the city of Rouen in 1431. She was barely 20 years old