Everything about Loire Valley totally explained
Loire Valley (
French:
Vallée de la Loire) is known as the
Garden of France and the
Cradle of the French Language. It is also noteworthy for the quality of its architectural heritage, in its historic towns such as
Amboise,
Angers,
Blois,
Chinon,
Nantes,
Orléans,
Saumur, and
Tours, but in particular for its world-famous castles, such as the
Châteaux d'
Amboise,
Château de Villandry and
Chenonceau.
The landscape of the
Loire Valley, and more particularly its many cultural monuments, illustrate to an exceptional degree the ideals of the
Renaissance and the
Age of the Enlightenment on western European thought and design. The Loire Valley is an outstanding cultural landscape of great beauty, containing historic towns and villages, great architectural monuments, its many
châteaux, and fine
wines.
On
December 2,
2000,
UNESCO added the central part of the
Loire River valley, between
Maine and
Sully-sur-Loire, to its list of
World Heritage Sites. In choosing this area that includes the French
départements of
Loiret,
Loir-et-Cher,
Indre-et-Loire, and
Maine-et-Loire, the committee said that the Loire Valley is:
"an exceptional cultural landscape, of great beauty, comprised of historic cities and villages, great architectural monuments - the Châteaux - and lands that have been cultivated and shaped by centuries of interaction between local populations and their physical environment, in particular the Loire itself."
Châteaux of the Loire Valley
The
châteaux, numbering more than three hundred, represent a nation of builders starting with the necessary
castle fortifications in the
10th century to the splendor of those built half a millennium later. When the French kings began constructing their huge châteaux here, the nobility, not wanting or even daring to be far from the seat of power, followed suit. Their presence in the lush, fertile valley with its moderate climate, began attracting the very best landscape designers.
By the middle of the 16th century,
King Francois I, had shifted the center of power in France from the Loire back to the ancient capital of Paris. With him went the great architects, but the Loire Valley continued to be the place where most of the French royalty preferred to spend the bulk of their time. The ascension of
King Louis XIV in the middle of the 17th century made Paris the permanent site for great royal châteaux when he built the
Palace of Versailles. Nonetheless, those who gained the king's favour and the wealthy
bourgeoisie, continued to renovate existing châteaux or build lavish new ones as their summer residence in the Loire.
The
French Revolution saw a number of the great French châteaux destroyed and many ransacked, their treasures stolen. The overnight impoverishment of many of the deposed
nobility, usually after one of its members lost their head to the
guillotine, saw many châteaux demolished. During
World War I and
World War II, some chateaux were commandeered as military headquarters. Some of these continued to be used this way after the end of WWII.
Today, these privately owned châteaux serve as homes, a few opening their doors to tourist visits, while others are operated as hotels or bed and breakfasts. Many have been taken over by a local government authority or the giant structures like those at
Chambord are owned and operated by the national government and are major tourist sites, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Loire Valley'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://loire_valley.totallyexplained.com">Loire Valley Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
