The Donjon (Keep)

The 11th-century rectangular keep, one of the oldest and tallest in France, with walls four metres thick

The square stone keep at the southern end of the citadel is the oldest standing structure in the complex and one of the earliest surviving rectangular keeps in France. It was begun about 1010 by Foulques Nerra of Anjou and completed by his son Geoffroy Martel. At 36 metres tall it dominates the southern half of the citadel.

You can climb to the top by way of the original spiral staircases inside the four-metre-thick walls. The interior is essentially unfurnished -- raw stone, narrow window slits, and the openings where wooden floors once divided the levels. The view from the wall walk takes in the whole of the citadel and the Indre valley to the south.

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A story
Foulques Nerra, the Black Count of Anjou, began building the keep around 1010 -- an act of dynastic violence in itself, since the family that had owned the site had to be evicted at the point of a sword. It stood through five hundred years of siege without being taken. The interior staircases are the original 11th-century work.