Château-Renault is a commune in the

Indre-et-Loire Indre-et-Loire () is a department in west-central France named after the Indre River and Loire River. In 2019, it had a population of 610,079.department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

in central

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

Geography

Château-Renault is located on the Far-West of the

Gâtine Tourangelle Gâtine or Gatine may refer to: *Gatine, Alberta, a locality in Canada * Gâtinais, in the départments of Loiret and Seine-et-Marne, France * Gâtine Tourangelle, in the north of the département of Indre-et-Loire *Gâtine Vendéenne The Gâtine ...

plateau, next to the

Loir-et-Cher Loir-et-Cher (, ) is a department in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France. Its name is originated from two rivers which cross it, the Loir in its northern part and the Cher in its southern part. Its prefecture is Blois. The INSEE and La P ...

department and at the confluence of two rivers : The ''Gault'' and the ''Brenne''. Its Elevation vary between 90 meters and 140 meters on the plateau. The area of the commune is 3.51 square kilometre. Located in the North of A10 highway, the town of Chateau-Renault is equidistant to the cities of

Tours Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the prefecture of the department of Indre-et-Loire. The commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabitants as of 2018 while the population of the whole metr ...

and

Vendôme Vendôme (, ) is a subprefecture of the department of Loir-et-Cher, France. It is also the department's third-biggest commune with 15,856 inhabitants (2019). It is one of the main towns along the river Loir. The river divides itself at the ent ...

and can be reached on train services on the Tours-Paris or Tours-Vendôme lines.

History

The town at the Middle Age

Evidence of early human occupation or the Loire Valley has been found such as the standing stones of Pierrefite and several hand tools, but the settlement of Chateau-Renault dates from the feudal wars that occurred in the 11th century between the Counts of Blois and the Counts of Anjou. In the early part of the century a loyal member of the court of the Count of Blois was charged by the construction of a defensive structure (most likely a simple wooden tower) on the site of the present chateau. He named this defensive structure after his son, Renaud. This was the origin of the towns name. However, the defensive structure was not enough and the area was soon lost to the Counts of Anjou. It was under the new management that land was donated for the construction of a chapel and a small settlement at the foot of the castle site.

The development of tanneries

From the early 19th century to the mid 20th century, Château-Renault became famous for its activity of tanning leather. It was ultimately a strong industry that had a big influence on how the town developed. The leather produced was used in shoes production. High levels of calcium carbonate in the water gave the leather produced there a thick, resistant nature and the arrival of the railway in 1867 ensured that the product had access to a market.

Demography

Notable people

André Bauchant André Bauchant (April 24, 1873 – August 12, 1958) was a French 'naïve' painter. He is known mostly as a painter of flowers and of landscape compositions with figures which were often informed by mythology and classical history. He was bor ...

naïve Naivety (also spelled naïvety), naiveness, or naïveté is the state of being naive. It refers to an apparent or actual lack of experience and sophistication, often describing a neglect of pragmatism in favor of moral idealism. A ''naïve'' may ...

painter, born in Château-Renault in 1873. He died in 1958. * :fr:Jean-François Martin Gardien (1755-1793), member of the Convention parliament. * :fr:Paul Séguin-Bertault (1869-1964), painter born in Château-Renault. * André Verrier (1919-2013), awarded by the Order of Liberation.

International relations

It is twinned with the towns

Ripley Ripley may refer to: People and characters * Ripley (name) * ''Ripley'', the test mannequin aboard the first International Space Station space station Dragon 2 space test flight Crew Dragon Demo-1 * Ellen Ripley, a fictional character from the Ali ...

(United Kingdom),

Mülheim-Kärlich Mülheim-Kärlich is a town in the district Mayen-Koblenz, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is part of the '' Verbandsgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") Weißenthurm. It is situated west of Koblenz Koblenz (; Moselle Franconian la ...

(Germany) and Covăsânț (Romania).Château-Renault official website