Ancenis, Loire Valley

My next stop along the Loire Valley is the little town of Ancenis. Home to just over 7,000 people, it’s a delight of winding medieval streets and gorgeous views over the river, vineyards cloaking the hills in the background. The place is small enough to discover on foot, so I enjoy a lovely few hours following the cobblestone streets, ducking into a bookshop here, a café there, until I reach, in the centre of the town, L'église Saint-Pierre, the main church. The current structure is quite new for the Loire Valley, having been completed in the 19th Century, but like so much here, it's built on layers and layers of history. It was first a Gallo-Roman temple, though we don’t know which god it was dedicated to, then it was a handsome stone parish church until the 15th century, when it was destroyed in war. It was rebuilt in the 16th and 17th century, today its aisles and choir still come from this time, and then rebuilt again in the 19th. The final addition came in 1946, when artist Raphaël Lardeur created the beautiful stain-glassed windows at the end of the sept. 

After a short look around the church, I head out and towards the town’s main attraction, its château. The Château d’Ancenis is the first of these beautiful and historic palaces I will visit on my journey along the Loire. The Valley is home to over 300 of them, forming their densest concentration in France, so I’ll only get to a select few.

What exactly is a château? The word translates into ‘castle’ in English and many of them fit the image this word brings to mind - medieval fortresses, meant to withstand a siege, with high walls, towers, and an architectural design that favours military advantage over comfort.

Then there’s another class of château, those built a little later after the end of the constant warfare of the Middle Ages. Visionaries and romantics such as Louis I, Louis XI, and Catherine de’ Medici built beautiful and luxurious residences, set in the idyllic countryside. These are the Renaissance châteaux for which the Loire Valley is most famous. Usually set on the foundations of medieval castles, the new château resembled its forebears in plan, usually composed of a central keep, towers, curtain walls and moats. In the new era, the keep became luxury apartments, filled with light and art, the towers became thinner and more elegant, the moats turned into pleasure lakes, and the walls were made just high enough to keep the occupants’ privacy. 

The Château d’Ancenis retains its medieval character. Built in the 900s, it’s far older than any castle in the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, the succeeding centuries have not treated it well; it was besieged by the English kings Henry II and John. Then the French kings Louis IX, Louis XI and François II. Then Charles, Duke of Brittany, King Charles VIII, and Louis II de la Trémoille. Charles VIII finally put it out of its misery and ordered its demolition. Whoo! What a life!

Despite this, and another order for its demolition in the 17th century, the castle still stands today. I spend an enjoyable afternoon walking through its ruins, along the battlements and admiring a display of the cannonballs found embedded in the walls by archaeologists. Then, I end my journey in the beautiful white washed central keep.