Why go
The château rewards a close look at the relationship between water and design. Its builder wanted a residence that displayed new Renaissance taste while recalling a fortified past. The central staircase makes that change especially easy to see beside the Indre.
The full story
A fortress once guarded the crossing of the Indre on the road between Tours and Chinon. The present château began in 1518 for Gilles Berthelot, a royal finance official, after the earlier castle had been destroyed. Berthelot was often away, so his wife Philippa Lesbahy oversaw much of the building work. The island's soft ground required timber piles beneath the foundations. Stone from Saint-Aignan also had to travel a long distance by boat, slowing construction. The result was a residence with a striking balance of old and new: defensive details still suggested status, while larger openings and ordered façades expressed Renaissance taste. The grand central staircase rises in straight flights, unlike the spiral stairs common in earlier castles. Later owners, the Biencourts, assembled a large portrait collection that the public could once see; the collection and furnishings were dispersed after the château was sold in 1899.