Champtocé Castle (also called Gilles de Rais Castle) is located in the town of Champtocé-sur-Loire, in the Maine-et-Loire department, 25 km south-west of Angers.
Located on a promontory overlooking a tributary and an arm of the Loire, on the right bank, the site is mentioned as early as the 11th century when the counts of Anjou controlled traffic on the river there. A first castellum was built there around 1075 and then it became a fortress at the beginning of the 14th century.
The famous Gilles de Rais was born there in 1405: comrade-in-arms of Joan of Arc, Marshal of France, his excesses and his atrocities led him to his downfall and he was executed in Nantes in 1440. Three years earlier, he had sold the Château de Champtocé to the Duke of Brittany.
Strategic site between Anjou and Brittany, place of toll for bargemen, the castle subsequently experienced many changes of owners. However, it was already partially ruined during the Revolution.
Accessible via a gatehouse guarding a drawbridge and protected by gunboats, the castle was made up of eleven towers. Only one remains today, as well as a postern.
Protected as historical monuments, the site, which belongs to the community, has been the subject since the 1990s of security and restoration work undertaken by an association of passionate volunteers.
Eventually, the complex could be opened to the public (it is currently only very occasionally). For the time being, therefore, while waiting, during a stopover in this village with a rich past, the noble vestiges can be admired from the outside... Information on +33 2 41 39 91 80.
