After 1154, Tours became a crossroads of the Plantagenêt empire, where the livre
tournois (set at four to the English pound) became ubiquitous. Prosperity continued after
the French conquest of 1204–05, when a bailli at Tours and prévôts at other key points
integrated Touraine into the royal domain. By 1300, serfdom had virtually vanished.
Under the Valois kings (1328–1498), Touraine became an apanage and suffered from
financial exploitation, the Black Death (post-1351), and the Hundred Years’ War (1337–
1453). The enforced residence of Charles VII (r. 1422–61) on the Loire led to the
location of the Chambre des Comptes and a royal mint at Tours, where the Estates often
met and which was a bastion of the monarchy during the worst days of the war. Touraine
was a preferred royal residence in the late Middle Ages and a center of political and
artistic life that transformed its châteaux-forts into the châteaux for which the region
remains renowned.
R.Thomas McDonald
In Tours, the stone bridge across the Loire meets the bridge across the River Cher at
the Rue Nationale, a street that today neatly divides the city in half. The two areas retain
much of the fabric of the medieval city, as well as fragmentary monuments of the thriving
early Christian communites. The east quarter holds the cathedral of Saint-Gatien, the
abbey church of Saint-Julien, the remains of the castle of Henry II Plantagenêt, the
archbishops’ palace, 15th-century gabled houses, and remains of a late-medieval castle.
The area west of the Rue Nationale grew around the tomb of St. Martin and now contains
the remains of a medieval cemetery, 12th-18th-century houses, and the 15th-century
church of Notre-Dame-la-Riche.
Partial collapse and a fire in the Romanesque church of Saint-Gatien necessitated
rebuilding after 1239, which continued until the Flamboyant façade was completed in
- The north and south towers were finished in 1507 and 1550, respectively. Stained-
glass windows in the transepts and east end, which illustrate the Passion of Christ and
legends of the saints, have been dated to ca. 1260. The abbey of Saint-Julien consisted of
a Romanesque tower and 13th-century chapter house and cellars, but only a 16th-century
dormitory still stands.
Although early-medieval Tours flourished as a pilgrimage site and had a well-known
scriptorium, comparatively little architecture survives, especially as regards the once
massive basilica of Saint-Martin. Vikings destroyed the original sanctuary, and a new
basilica was built over the course of the 11th-13th centuries. During the Revolution, the
church fell into disrepair and was pulled down in 1802. Two of the Romanesque towers,
the Tour Charlemagne and the north-transept Tour de l’Horloge, remain, as well as the
crypt, now located below the modern basilica. In the Tour Charlemagne, a restored wall
painting of St. Florentius survives from the mid-12th century.
Some 12th-century remains in the largely 17th- and 18th-century archbishops’ palace
include the Ecclesiastical Tribunal, which now houses the Musée des Beaux Arts. Of the
old city gates and castle built by Henry II, only two towers, including the Tour de Guise,
survive. In Place Foirele-Roi, 15th-century gabled houses surround the square where
medieval food fairs and mystery plays took place. A wing of brick and stone remains
from Louis XI’s nearby château of Plessis-les-Tours from 1463. Recent excavations have
revealed a medieval cemetery in the tiny square of Saint-Pierre-le-Puelier.
Stacy L.Boldrick
[See also: MARTIN OF TOURS]
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 1738