The Château d'Ancenis is a

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

in the town and '' commune'' of

Ancenis Ancenis (; ) is a former Communes of France, commune in the Loire-Atlantique Departments of France, department in western France. On 1 January 2019, it was merged into the new commune Ancenis-Saint-Géréon. It is a former Subprefectures in France ...

in the

Loire-Atlantique Loire-Atlantique (; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Louére-Atantique''; ; before 1957: ''Loire-Inférieure'', ) is a departments of France, department in Pays de la Loire on the west coast of France, named after the river Loire and the Atlantic Ocean. ...

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...

'' of France. The castle is on the bank of the

Loire The Loire ( , , ; ; ; ; ) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône. It rises in the so ...

History

The original castle was built in 990 by Aremburga of Ancenis, widow of Guerech, Duke of Brittany, as a

motte-and-bailey castle A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy ...

. (A plaque on the castle names Guerech as the constructor, in 984. This is not supported in any documentary sources.) It had simple defences including a

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch dug around a castle, fortification, building, or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. Moats can be dry or filled with water. In some places, moats evolved into more extensive water d ...

and a palisade with an enclosure to shelter the population. Owing to its location, it rapidly developed as an ideal place for surveillance of the river, exercising military and economic control. In 1411, the lord and lady of Ancenis were ordered by the authorities to cease detaining boats that passed the castle and extracting punitive tolls on their cargoes. Its strategic position meant that it was subjected to several sieges between the 12th and 16th centuries, by the English kings

Henry II Henry II may refer to: Kings * Saint Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor (972–1024), crowned King of Germany in 1002, of Italy in 1004 and Emperor in 1014 *Henry II of England (1133–89), reigned from 1154 *Henry II of Jerusalem and Cyprus (1271–1 ...

and

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

, the French kings

Louis IX Louis IX (25 April 1214 – 25 August 1270), also known as Saint Louis, was King of France from 1226 until his death in 1270. He is widely recognized as the most distinguished of the Direct Capetians. Following the death of his father, Louis ...

Louis XI Louis XI (3 July 1423 – 30 August 1483), called "Louis the Prudent" (), was King of France from 1461 to 1483. He succeeded his father, Charles VII. Louis entered into open rebellion against his father in a short-lived revolt known as the ...

and

François II Francis II (; 19 January 1544 – 5 December 1560) was King of France from 1559 to 1560. He was also King of Scotland as the husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, from 1558 until his death in 1560. He ascended the throne of France at age 15 af ...

Charles, Duke of Brittany Charles of Blois-Châtillon (131929 September 1364), nicknamed "the Saint", was the legalist Duke of Brittany from 1341 until his death, via his marriage to Joan of Penthièvre, Joan, Duchess of Brittany and Countess of Penthièvre, holding th ...

and, on the orders of King Charles VIII,

Louis de la Trémoille Louis may refer to: People * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer Other uses * Louis (coin), a French coin * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also * ...

."Le château, classé Monument Historique"
Mairie d'Ancenis website . Retrieved 1 January 2019. Charles VIII ordered the demolition of the castle. In 1488, he wrote to de la Trémoille and his lieutenants forbidding them to allow their workers any holiday until the demolition was complete. Excavations in the 1950s discovered cannon balls as evidence of the sieges of the castle.P-R Giot and P-L Nior
"La Pirogue Prehistorique d'Ancenis"
''Bulletin archéologique du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques'', p 285 Paris 1954 . Retrieved 1 January 2019. From the 17th century, the military role of the castle dwindled. It was dismantled by order of Richelieu in 1626. Sections of curtain walls and towers were disfigured or removed. The moats were filled with the construction of wharves in 1840 and the establishment of an Ursuline boarding school in 1850, continued the damage.

Description

The gatehouse, built at the end of the 14th and the beginning of the 16th century, has a unique defensive device: a

drawbridge A drawbridge or draw-bridge is a type of moveable bridge typically at the entrance to a castle or tower surrounded by a moat. In some forms of English, including American English, the word ''drawbridge'' commonly refers to all types of moveable b ...

arranged in a

chicane A chicane () is a serpentine curve in a road, added by design rather than dictated by geography. Chicanes add extra turns and are used both in motor racing and on roads and streets to slow traffic for safety. For example, one form of chicane is ...

and a crooked arched gallery with a

portcullis A portcullis () is a heavy, vertically closing gate typically found in medieval fortifications. It consists of a latticed Grille (architecture), grille made of wood and/or metal, which slides down grooves inset within each jamb of the gateway. ...

. The

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

home, a residential project started by Claude 1 de Rieux and his wife Suzanne de Bourbon, was built around 1529. Its facade, on the courtyard side, has decor of the first Renaissance, while the structure of the house remains Gothic.

Preservation

It has been listed since 1977 as a ''

monument historique () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which national heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a collection of buildings, ...

'' by the

French Ministry of Culture The Ministry of Culture () is the ministry (government department), ministry of the Government of France in charge of List of museums in France, national museums and the . Its goal is to maintain the French identity through the promotion and pro ...

. This protection concerns the entirety of the fortifications, as well as the façades and roof of the buildings (Renaissance house, former chapel and a dwelling called "logis de Marie Fouquet"). It became the property of the town in 1986. In the 1990s, work was undertaken to demolish the 19th century chapel and the 1960s school building and to restore the gatehouse. Between 2013 and 2015, the Renaissance house was repaired, with the structure strengthened and entrances reopened.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ancenis, Chateau d' Castles in Pays de la Loire Châteaux in Loire-Atlantique Monuments historiques of Loire-Atlantique