Langeais
Langeais is a 4059 inhabitants (as of 1 January 2011) scoring commune in the Centre region in the département of Indre -et -Loire. The municipality is part of the Regional Natural Park Loire -Anjou- Touraine.
Location
Langeais is located at a height of about 50 meters above sea level. inst on the north shore of the Loire River about 25 km ( driving distance ) southwest of Tours. The lovely city of Azay -le- Rideau with its renaissance castle located south of the Loire in just ten miles away.
Demographics
In the 19th century, the community, which also includes several hamlets and isolated farmsteads belong resistant 2200-3600 inhabitants.
Economy
For centuries, the modern town was part of a largely self-sustaining agriculture in the wine also played a role. The Louis XI. commissioned construction of the castle on the site of a high previous medieval building led to the emergence of small craft. In the 19th century Langeais was famous for his melon breeding. Since the 1960s, the cultural and wine tourism play an important role in the economy of the small town; the surrounding vineyards are in the metropolitan area of the Loire wines for wine-growing region of Touraine.
History
The Mask of La Roche- Cotard is a product from the Mousterian artifact, which is referred to as proto- figurine to the works of art of the Upper Palaeolithic. She was found in 2002 at the entrance of the cave discovered in 1912 by La Roche- Cotard in Langeais. The newly discovered Mousterian horizon has been known for 25 years.
The place was already in the 5th century as Alangavia. Towards the end of the 10th century, Count Fulk of Anjou Nerra on the hill above the modern town a castle built around its territorial claims against Count Odo of Blois to emphasize. This dropped in 1044 to the House of Plantagenet and came with Henry II in 1154 to the British Crown. Beginning of the 13th century Langeais fell as a result of the victory of the French king Philip Augustus over John Lackland to France. The Hundred Years' War ( 1428 ) the hitherto victorious English gave them free only on condition that it is dragged down to the dungeon. Thus, only a few ruins of the donjon remained of the castle. An imposing new castle was built between 1465-1469 by order of the king to protect the royal domain; the wedding of King Charles VIII and Anne de Bretagne was held on December 6, 1491. Langeais remained until 1631 royal possession. In 1886 it was bought by Jacques Siegfried, to whom we owe with historic furniture, the interior of the palace; he bequeathed the castle and furnishings and works of art in 1904 the Institut de France.
Attractions
Langeais Castle
Other
- The remains of the 950 built rectangular donjon, the oldest in France, located on an artificial hill ( Motte ) in the garden of the castle grounds.
- The Romanesque church of Saint -Laurent from the 11-12. Century has long been a priory of the Abbey of Beaulieu, then later to the beginning of the French Revolution parish church. The unadorned building is about a mile west of today's town center and is classified as a monument historique since 1990.
- The single-nave parish church of Saint -Jean -Baptiste is dedicated to John the Baptist. It dates from the 12th century, but was altered in the 15th and 19th centuries and shows Romanesque, Gothic and Neo-Gothic elements. The church is recognized as a monument historique since 1914 and 1933 respectively.
- The ground dating from the 16th century so-called Maison de Rabelais now houses a café. Since 1943 it has been recognized as a monument historique.
- Two other Renaissance houses were also made in the years 1943 and 1944 under monument protection.
- The suspension bridge over the Loire River was built in 1846-1849 and rebuilt after its destruction in World War 2 in the 1950s.
Twinning
Others
- Honoré de Balzac wrote the report in 1834 novel " The Duchess of Langeais " (La Duchesse de Langeais / Original Title: Ne pas la hache Touchez ).