[3] The traditional province around Chinon, Touraine, became a favorite resort of French kings and their nobles beginning in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

The Renaissance châteaux which they built new or erected on the foundations of old fortresses earned this part of the Loire Valley the nickname "The Garden of France."

At this period rivers were the main trade routes,[5] and the Vienne joins both the fertile regions of the Poitou and the city of Limoges, and is a tributary of the Loire, which acted as a traffic thoroughfare.

On Henry's death at the castle in 1189, Chinon first passed to his eldest surviving son from his marriage with Eleanor of Aquitaine, Richard I the Lionheart.

Jacques de Molay, Grand Master, and a few other dignitaries of the Order of the Temple were incarcerated there prior to trial and eventual execution.

[10] Chinon again played a significant role in the struggle for the throne between the French and the English during the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453) when the heir apparent, the future Charles VII of France sought refuge and installed his court there in 1425.

After interrogation to prove she had been sent on a mission from God and with the men and arms then accorded to her, she would go on to break the siege of Orléans in June and open the way for Charles to be crowned at Reims in July 1429.

The meetings in Chinon with the future Charles VII of France and his acceptance of her constituted the turning point of the war, helping to establish both firmer national boundaries and sentiment.

[11] Chinon also served Louis XII as he waited for the papal legate Cesare Borgia to bring the annulment papers from Jeanne de France, enabling him to marry Anne of Brittany in 1498, and thus solidifying an even more coherent French territory.

[12] In 1490, the commune of Chinon was the birthplace of the writer, humanist, humorist, philosopher and satirist François Rabelais,[13] author of Gargantua and Pantagruel amongst other works, which figure in the canon of great world literature.

The historic town of Chinon presents an interesting architectural ensemble, from the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance when the Loire Valley was the seat of the king's court.

Topography has played a major role: the formerly fortified town was developed at the foot of the castle on the rocky outcrop, protecting the northern side, with the Vienne River in the south.

Apart from the natural defensive protection on both sides, this fact makes a long narrow urban space, with the main streets running parallel to the river.

It also, at the main crossroads of the "Grand Carroi", offered the only access to the castle from within the town, and is the street that Joan of Arc took to go up and meet the future Charles VII in 1429.

The quarters of the former fortified town and that of Saint Etienne-Saint Mexme are divided by what was the only open space during the Middle Ages which was developed in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the architectural elements date from this period.

[17] This moment is depicted in one of the stained glass windows of the apse in the church of Saint Etienne in Chinon by the atelier Lobin in the 19th century.

The nave is characterized by its horizontal lines: rows of large arcades and a series of high windows topped by a string course and a timber ceiling.

It has a central portion, once richly decorated with carved stones depicting figuratives scenes that were largely mutilated during the Revolution, flanked by two side towers partially rebuilt in the 15th century.

[18] It forms, with the first façade from the year 1000 AD conserved in the interior, a narthex with a large barrel-vault with semicircular arches; the walls present blind arcades.

The upper gallery contains mural paintings from the 13th century, and a rare and imposing crucifixion carved in stone near the top of the first façade also dating from the 1st millennium.

The chapel conserves some mural paintings, notably the Royal Hunt, made towards the end of the 12th century, the time of the power and residence of the Plantagenet family in Chinon.

The church was repainted in the 19th century, inspired by the restoration of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, and received new stained glass windows commissioned from the Atelier Lobin in Tours.