Avenue du Vieux Château

This is the only remaining vestige of the castle built in the 15th century. It is the gatehouse with its two round towers. Philippe Auguste laid siege to the castle and took it in 1188. It was attributed to Richard the Lionheart in 1189 at the treaty of Azay-le-Rideau and returned to the king of France in 1199 when Berry was reunited with France definitively. During the Hundred Years' War, the castle suffered great damage. Bertrand de la Tour d'Auvergne and his wife, lords of Levroux, proceeded to repair it. The mutilated shields represented their arms: an anchored cross and a gonfanon (a quadrangular piece of cloth, like the banner, or finished by points) with 3 pendants. The castle was owned by Catherine de Medici and popular legend has it that she lost her engagement ring there, never found to this day.