Montoire-sur-le-Loir

• Located in the heart of the country of the poet Pierre de Ronsard, the city of Montoire-sur-le-Loir, classified green resort, is a small authentic city rich in its heritage, its events throughout the year, its festival of folklore in August, Its museum of world music, its history. For those who love the old stones, you will be able to admire many houses of the sixteenth century, most of which are open to visitors: the Tourist Office, the former hospital founded by the Abbot Moreau, the Augustinian convent and The place Renaissance house, former home of the Bailli.
• History of the town of Montoire:

• The presence of the prehistoric man is attested at "Montoire" by the presence of a Neolithic workshop on the hillside, above the Reclusages and by the discovery of tools from different epochs in several places of the commune. In the valley alluvial deposits, during the exploitation of a ballast, a human skull that can be dated 450 000 years was discovered.
• The Gallic and Gallo-Roman occupation was highlighted during archaeological excavations by the presence of agricultural structures in the commune of Saint-Rimay.
• During periods of unrest, like that of the High Middle Ages, with the invasion of the Normans, the inhabitants took refuge in troglodytic habitats between Montoire and Lavardin, and under the castle of Montoire.

It was only in the second half of the 10th century that the history of Montoire began.

In 955, the guard of the lands of Montoire was given to Bouchard Ratepilate, called Chauve-Souris. His son Bouchard, surnamed the Venerable or the Elder, ordered to surround the 45 ares covered by the present castle with a wooden enclosure.

At the beginning of the eleventh century, the castle was given to Nihard, governor and forester of Montoire, who, taking advantage of the struggles between the Count of Vendome and the Bishop of Le Mans, succeeded in being recognized as Baron de Montoire The lord in 1033.

• Hamelin de Langeais, lord of Montoire, built the current stone dungeon in 1075, which underwent a single reshuffle in the middle of the 12th century to increase from 2 to 3 levels.

At the foot of the castle, the church of Saint-Oustrille, named after a bishop of Bourges, was certainly built towards the end of the 12th century. It was enlarged in the 15th century by the addition of two lateral chapels. In the revolutionary period it was used as a saltpetre factory and was sold as a national property in 1794.

• The priory Saint-Gilles with its chapel built at the end of the 11th century depended on the abbey of Saint-Calais. Pierre de Ronsard, the poet, was a prior of it in 1566. It was sold as a national property in 1791.
• The Saint-Oustrille district was surrounded by a wall flanked by towers from the backyard to the Loir.
• In 1188, following the conflict between the King of France Philippe Auguste and the King of England Richard Coeur de Lion, the castle of Montoire had to undergo the siege of the King of England. He passed successively into the hands of the French and the English. It became French in 1202 after the confiscation of the goods of John without Earth.
• After successive works, the castle taken by the Ligueurs was flushed and dismantled in 1594 on the orders of King Henri IV.
• Louis de Bourbon was taken prisoner in 1415 at the battle of Azincourt and detained as a prisoner in the Tower of London. On his return from captivity, he had the convent of the Augustinians built in 1427, which sheltered only four monks on the eve of the Revolution. The convent was sold as national property and served as a gendarmerie, a barracks which took in 1890 the name of Marescot.
• The new town, located on the right bank of the Loir, developed in the fourteenth-fifteenth century around a fairground (the present large square). There are many Renaissance houses and also half-timbered houses. At the end of the 15th century, the Notre-Dame-de-la Pitie church was built on the site of the present church.
• From 1718, the seigniory of Montoire passed in many hands and the last purchaser, the Marquis of Querhoent, decided in 1743 to give it its name. The last Marquis of Querhoent was dispossessed of his property at the Revolution.
• Montoire underwent a major expansion with Mayor René Chauvin who under his mandate (1848-1870) undertook numerous works: piercing of Ronsard Street, construction of the bridge, fitting out the square with the construction of a fountain, Place Foch, many works of roads...

To prevent the Prussian invasion in 1870, Chanzy's army blew up the bridge.

In the station at Montoire, on October 20, 1940, Chancellor Hitler met the President of the Council Pierre Laval, and on his return from his meeting with Franco at Hendaye on October 24, 1940, Marshal Philippe Pétain.

• The city was liberated on August 11, 1944.