In 1025 the count of Anjou, Foulques Nerra, built an impressive tower on the remains of a Roman oppidum. The Count himself was member of an elite group of loyal subjects to the then King of France, Hugo Capet. From him, would descend a line of Plantagenêts, the very same family that was to rule Britain from 1154 to 1485. Many tombs and burial chambers of well known historical rulers, such as that of Henry II and his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine and that of Richard the Lionheart, can be seen at the Royal Fontevrault abbey.
Foulques Nerra passed Montreuil-Bellay on to his loyal vassal Berlay (subsequently Bellay), whose descendents developed its fortifications over three centuries. Over time were built: ramparts, trenches, moats, tunnels, a barbican, eighteen towers and a central kitchen area to feed the garrisons. Montreuil-Bellay soon became widely known as an impregnable fortress.
Between 1417 and 1488, Jaques D’Harcourt and his son Guillaume added buildings in a new style –that of the early Renaissance: the collegiate church and canons’ living quarters, the watch tower and the Castle mounted by an external spiral staircase characteristic of the fifteenth century. They redecorated the medieval kitchen, had frescoes painted in the oratory by a student of Leonardo Da Vinci, installed magnificent ovens and opened up the walls to create more space. Windows and doors allowed light to enter. Military art was making way for the elegance of a pleasure residence!
It was the end of the century, at the time when Louis XI brought the Hundred Year War to an end, when the final stone was laid, - the same time that Charles VIII, Louis XII and François I were mobilising French armies in Italy to ensure the succession of the heirs of the House of Anjou to the Kingdom of Naples.
In 1860, with the help of the architect Joly-Leterme (formerly pupil of Violet le Duc), Augustine de Grandmaison began renovation work and made two Italian Renaissance-style openings in the gable-end of the castle. |
