The hillside which overlooks the river Vienne at CHINON was the site of an important fortress as early as the paleolithic era. Having become an important Gallo-Roman 'oppidum', an authentic Roman wall, tombstones and fragments of a triumphal arch are still evident today.

In the days of the barbaric invasions of the Vth century, the site then occupied by the Visigoths, was attacked by Aegidius, governor of Gaul, who was forced to lift the siege as a result of Saint Mexme's intervention. The latter was a disciple of Saint Martin, and together they converted the people of the area.

One century later, the Saxon hermit John was visited by Radegonde, Queen of France, in the hillside cave where he lived. The chapel dedicated to her is situated nearby and is adorned with magnificient Romanesque frescoes.

Owned by the Counts of Blois in the Xth century, Chinon, then known as Kaino, was given by the latter to the Plantagenêts, the Comtes d'Anjou, one of whom became king of England in 1154. The Plantagenêt Henri II made Chinon castle, where he often stayed with his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine, his favourite residence, particularly by improving communication with the other side of the valley by building a stone bridge and also a series of arches, making the flooded marshes accessible in winter.

Tradition says that Henri II's son, Richard the Lionheart, died in Chinon after being wounded at Châlus in 1199. The new owner, John 'Lackland', abandoned the fortress in 1205 after a year-long siege, thereby leaving it to the King of France Philippe Augustus and uniting the Touraine region with France.

At the beginning of the XIVth century, 'Philip the Fair' ordered the imprisonment of the Templars and their Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, in the Coudray Tower, despite Pope Clement V's appeals against it; the former were later burnt in Paris.

But it was in the XVth century that Chinon becomes the most important castle in the Kingdom and that the most prominent figures frequented it. Charles VII lived in Chinon almost continuously from 1427 to 1450, in the company of both his wife Marie d'Anjou, sister of King René d'Anjou, and daughter of Yolande d'Aragon, and Agnès Sorel, Dame de Beauté, who was well-known for her gracefulness and elegance; she was also the first 'official mistress' of a French King and was the mother of some of Charles VII's legitimate daughters. The beautiful Agnès lived in the Roberdeau, a small manor built at the foot of the castle-walls, and linked to the royal apartments by an underground passage.

It was at the beginning of his reign, in 1429, that Charles VII was visited by Joan of Arc in the castle's Main Hall. Charles gradually reconquered his kingdom, and, for almost a century, the town of Chinon profited from the fact that it had become The Capital of the Kingdom; it witnessed the consctruction of several dwelling houses, manors and country seats, both in Chinon and the surrounding area, which combined the gracefulness of the end of the Gothic era with the Renaissance style.

Charles VII, Louis XI, Charles VIII and Louis XII all considered Touraine their favourite place of residence, but gradually, Paris was to become the capital. Chinon continued to entertain famous visitors even though the sovereigns only resided there occasionally. In 1498, Caesar Borgia, the son and legate of Pope Alexander VI, came to Chinon with great pomp and ceremony and brought Louis XII the annulment of his marriage to Jeanne de France, thereby allowing him to marry the Duchess Anne and to maintain France's possession of Brittany.


In the same way, François Rabelais, whose country-home, la Devinière, can be visited a few miles on the other side of the river Vienne, makes the town of Chinon and its neighbouring country famous throughout the world, by turning it into the centre of his picrocholine war and of his heroes Gargantua and Pantagruel.


The Castle of Chinon was neglected by Cardinal Richelieu and his heirs in the XVIIth century.

They allowed the castle to slowly disintegrate, so that their dukedom of Richelieu, whose charming town still exists nearby, may become 'the most beautiful town in the universe' as the fabulist, La Fontaine, put it.

In the XIXth century, the ramparts and towers which protected the town along the Vienne were pulled down, but the town and its Castle still offer sufficiently marvellous ruins, to induce one to visit it and to admire one of the most captivating historical sites of Ancient France.


Chinon's coat of arms bears the following words: "Gules with there castles, each made up of three gold towers, pavillioned and vaned in the same fashion, 2 and 1, accompanied by three gold 'fleurs de lis', 2 and I".

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