En un regard
Le château en bref
Set on the banks of the Loire and surrounded by wide water-filled moats, Sully-sur-Loire Castle is one of the most spectacular medieval fortresses of the Loire Valley. The site, mentioned as early as 1102, received a keep in 1218 commissioned by Philippe Auguste. From 1396, Gui VI de La Trémoille and his wife Marie de Sully had the present castle built, the plans of which are attributed to Raymond du Temple, architect to Charles V. The great rectangular keep, flanked by four round towers, shelters beneath its roofs a fourteenth-century broken-barrel roof frame, a masterpiece of carpentry; the small castle houses the living quarters.
At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Maximilien de Béthune, minister to Henri IV who had become Duke of Sully, adapted the residence to his rank and created a park between 1602 and 1607. The castle then welcomed famous guests: the young Louis XIV took refuge there in 1652 during the Fronde, and Voltaire stayed there in 1715 during his exile.
Having belonged to only three families, Sully was bought in 1962 by the Loiret department, which restored it and opened it to the public. Listed as a historic monument in 1928, it forms part of the Loire Valley, inscribed on the World Heritage List, and welcomes around 60,000 visitors a year.
