Wonderful Loire Valley Castles [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION /T IS usual to call them the "Castles of the Loire Valley". More prosaically, and slightly rashly, people say they "have done" the Loire. The expression seems to describe a monumental entity, emphasised by architectural harmony (15th and 16th centuries, the Italian Renaissance period) and historical continuity. In fact, it is much more complicated than that. Firstly, just how many castles are there ? Fifty ? Sixty ? All more or less well-known. This book is an introduction to the "ones you must not miss". Yet by redefming the idea of what constitutes a castle, it would be easy to arrive at a figure double the one indicated above. The geographical density of the castles is quite unique anywhere in the world. The Loire Valley Castles ? For every Blois, Amboise or Chaumont that really is washed by the waters of the royal river, how many Chenon-ceau, Azay or Chinon's stand on the banks of its tributaries ? How many Valengay, Beauregard or Cheverny's are built solidly on terra firma in the heart of the Loire countryside ? This is a truly hospitable region. The climate is pleasant, there is no rugged country and the scenery is gentle on the eye. It is, then, scarcely surprising that the kings of France, the Valois, and their English enemies, the Plantagenets, should have enjoyed hunting in the region's game-filled forests not far from Paris; they were so easy to reach. Yet other battles were fought in the Loire Valley. As far back as the 10th century, Foulques Nerra, Count of Anjou, the "BlackFalcon", destroyed almost as many fortresses as he built. Many of the castles have been extended or built around the famous keeps erected by Nerra - and they were used as keeps at a time when defence was more important than creature comforts, in the days of the One Hundred Years' War, the struggle against the English and the heroic deeds of Joan of Arc.