Château de Sully-sur-Loire

Set into the river north of the southern fording point were 3 grouped islands that were only submerged in the worst Loire floods.

The Church of Saint Germain is the base site of the port and village of Sully, controlling the crossroads of several routes.

There is no evidence of Roman or Gallic habitation at this point but at Bonnie, a short distance north are the remains of an important Gallo-Romanesque settlement.

[2] The first references in documentation defines a "castrum soliacense" in 1102,[3] the description indicating a building and family holding a certain status.

The Lord of Sully had to pay restitution to his suzerain, the Bishop of Orleans and recompense the king for the price of the Tower before he could regain his title.

The Keep also had its own moat and defences and joined the church of Saint Ythier in the Outer Courtyard that had been built in the 11th C. along with other undefined abbey and domestic buildings.

Accounts started to appear in the 14th century due to an order by Charles V of France for lords and towns to rebuild and repair their defences after the Peace of Bretigny.

The Fortress was described as having a keep on the northwest island, damaged in the storm and requiring work,[4] a palisaded fence surrounding the southwest island with a stone gate tower controlling the crossing to the eastern Outer Courtyard (the same or an older version of that now present) and the keep of Phillip and the Church of St Ythier both in the Outer Courtyard.

Guy de La Trémoïlle's son Georges was chamberlain and favourite of Charles VII of France.

Joan returned briefly to Sully in March 1430: By then she was being closely watched as she had broken the truce between Charles and the Burgundians after his coronation in July 1429 at Reims, by attacking Paris.

She joined Charles at Sully Sur Loire in March at the family castle of her chief detractor, George de La Trémoille.

[8] The Religious Wars of the time made Maximilien cautious: he had the Catholic St Ythien church (In ruins since 1586 when the Priest bridge had also been destroyed [4]) removed and rebuilt in the town.

Three new stone galleries were built, to replace the wooden palisades that connected the three buildings: the Keep the Tour de Bethune and the Petit Chateau on two floors.

He also relayed out the Petit Chateau, enlarged the park and strengthened the embankments of the Loire especially after a particularly strong flood in 1608 when he had to be rescued whilst in his study in the keep.

Despite major reworking of the flood defences a few years earlier that saw the establishment of a new access road running along the Loire embankment and over the moat into the Outer Courtyard from the North.

Henry IV never visited the château, but Mazarin and Anne of Austria took refuge there in March 1652 during the Fronde, France's Religious war.

[4] As was common at the time the tombs of the Lords were opened and re interred in anonymous graves, Max I and his wife's bodies were moved in 1793.

There is reference to the interiors being modernise in their layout and decoration, although it is unclear if the newly laid out windows and doors were done at this point or if they had been done when the Louis XV wing was built 100 years earlier.

[11] In 1962 the chateau was sold on the death of Eugene IIs granddaughter: Mahaut Marie to the Loiret Local Council who have restored much of it and opened it to the public.

[8] Today there is a two-meter-high statue of white Carrara marble representing the first Duke of Sully, Maximilien de Béthune.

The southern end of the Petit Château joins a high round tower with four floors and a conical hipped roof.

With a diameter of twelve meters, it has in the attic a cantilevered, all-round battlement on stone consoles and machicolation rows and dates from 1440.

Crowned by a bent cone helmet, its fourth story features a projecting battlement with small windows, machicolations and loopholes.

On the ground floor there is the Watch room, which has a coffered wooden ceiling painted partly with ducat gold and to the east a museum space and shop.

East of the Great Hall is the so-called ceremonial room, the bedroom of the Dukes of Sully with Flemish tapestry and wooden beamed ceiling in the Italian style and wallpaper in blue Damask.

In the southern wall, behind a wood panelling is a hidden heavy iron door from the 16th Century, which leads to a small study in the first floor of the western tower in the entrance building.

[5] The tall chestnut woodwork has the shape of a ship's keel turned upside down and today remains free from woodworm or other termites without the use of chemical means.

In addition, the unusual construction of the roof truss ensured lasting and good ventilation of the beams, so that they still require no modern intervention for their preservation.

The six wall hangings from a Parisian workshop called Tenture de Psyché depict the myth of Psyche and were kept in Rosny-sur-Seine until March 1994.