Château de Loches (Loches Castle)

The number of chic and unusual castles in France is simply off the charts, and even an avid tourist’s eyes go wild – which historical place to pay attention to first? In the Loire Valley each building is unique, but the severe castle of Losh with the oldest donjon in the country, built a thousand years ago, stands out. Ordering an excursion to the castle of Loche from the tour company Metropol Voyage you can enjoy feeling like a real knight or a beautiful medieval lady, visiting the royal chambers and overcoming 150 steps to the top of the donjon. Over the past centuries, the castle has repeatedly passed into the hands of the British and the French, and was most often used as a prison for highborn and not so highborn prisoners (Duke Lodovico Sforza languished here for 8 years). There is a romantic story connected with the fortress of Losh – the castle was the home of the “Beautiful Lady” Agnès Sorel, the beloved of the monarch Charles VII, who happily lived there until her unexpected early death at the age of 28. Despite its classical austere outlines, the chateau of Loche has a purely French charm, thanks to which the ancient fortress does not dissonate with the surrounding city, but on the contrary, exquisitely forms a single ensemble with it.