Amboise
Amboise is a city on the Loire, with 13,005 inhabitants (as of 1 January 2011) in central France in the department of Indre -et -Loire in the Centre region, about 20 km east of Tours. It is the main town ( chef-lieu ) of the canton of the same name.
History
Amboise ( after Bach name Ambacia, today Amasse ) was a fortress of the Gauls, which was adopted by the Romans. In the year 503 signed Clovis I ( King of the Franks ) and Alaric II ( king of the Goths ) here a peace agreement.
The rule of Amboise was given by Charles the Bald Aymon of Buzançais, of Louis the Stammerer Count of Anjou Ingelger. In the 11th century, Count Fulk Nerra Amboise gave as dowry to Hersende (see: House Amboise ), the wife of his seneschal Lisois. Their son Sulpice d' Amboise transferred his fealty 1050 of Anjou to the Count of Blois. Finally, towards the end of the 11th century there were Angevin vassal who took their name from Amboise and the ruled alone. In the 12th century the city was under Hugues I d' Amboise ( † 1128 ), the son Sulpices, the scene of a brilliant court.
The rule of Amboise in 1434 confiscated and united with the crown because Louis d'Amboise was in a conspiracy against Georges de La Trémoille, one of the favorites of the king engaged. King Louis XI. , Of the Castle Plessis- lès -Tours preferred self, Amboise left his family and the greatest part of the yard. King Charles VIII was born here in 1470, he made his main residence of Amboise, on it goes back from 1492 onwards also the construction of the castle. On April 7, 1498, he died there in an accident.
In March 1560 took place in the city during the religious disputes, the so-called conspiracy of Amboise from, and Catherine de 'Medici in 1563, signed the Edict of Amboise, which allowed a limited exercise of the Protestant faith.
The Castle
The city is dominated by the castle of Amboise from the 15th/16th. Century. It is one of the castles of the Loire and was only residence of the Valois, then a state prison.
Some buildings of the castle were almost at the beginning of the Italian Renaissance architecture in France. The young king Charles VIII commissioned the building in 1490 in order. After the capture of Naples, the work was continued in 1495 with the involvement of Italian artists. Francis I called 1516 the genius Leonardo da Vinci to his court, who spent his twilight years from spring 1516 until May 2, 1519 there.
Leonardo da Vinci lived in the manor house Clos Lucé, southeast of the castle in a small park. The house was connected by a 500 meter long underground passage with the lock.
Amboise in 1627 was incorporated into the possessions of Gaston of Orleans. 1660 no longer habitable castle fell again to the royal domain and served as a state prison; prominent prisoner was Nicolas Fouquet. In 1762 the Duke of Choiseul acquired the entire plant including the Barony and lands, and his heirs sold the property in 1786 to the Duke of Penthievre. After the revolution Amboise was expropriated and demolished over the following decades, large parts of the plant. The rightful heir, the Duchess of Orléans, was only in 1815 will continue to have the possession. After her death in 1821, inherited her son, the future King Louis-Philippe, the castle with all the possessions of Amboise. After his abdication in 1848, the castle was confiscated again and was then four years prison for Algerian freedom fighters Abd el-Kader, before it finally fell again in 1873 to the House of Orléans.
Attractions
- Musée de l' Hôtel de Ville ( early 16th century); in the former town hall, you can see a collection with pieces from the history of Amboise.
- Church of Saint -Denis ( 12th to 16th century)
- Church of Saint -Florentin (15th century)
- Porte de l' Amasse, city gate, on the end of the 15th century, a clock tower was erected
- Max Ernst Fountain, built in 1966-68 on the Loire - waterfront
- Nearby is the 40 meter high pagoda in the center of the park, which formerly belonged to the demolished castle Chanteloup.
- In the south there is the amusement park Parc des Mini Chateaux in which ( almost) all the Loire castles can be visited as models.
The Clock Tower ( ex- Porte de l' Amasse )
Church of Saint- Denis
Max Ernst Fountain
Twinning
Amboise has twinning closed with
- Germany Boppard in Rhineland -Palatinate ( Germany )
- Japan Suwa in Japan
- Italy Vinci in Tuscany ( Italy)
Sons and daughters of the town
- Charles VIII (1470-1498), King of France
- Francois (1518-1536), Dauphin de Viennois, Duke of Brittany, son of King Francis I and Claude de France