In 1937, a brilliant fate marked the thousandth anniversary of the city.  For it was, in fact, a thousand years before, at the time of the Norman and Magyar invasions near the year 935, that Raoul de Large abandoned his palace at Déols to install himself more safely upon the left bank of the Indre.  Here he found a site already fortified for some few centuries.

[photo from Deano Gamble]

On the site he had constructed a chateau, called at first the Chateau de Déols (or Castrum Dolense) and then, from the beginning of the 13th century, the Chateau Raoul after the traditional Christian name of the Lords of the House of Déols.  The chateau we see today, from which the city of Châteauroux takes its name, was restored in the 15th century.  Both city and fortress, Châteauroux was one of the objects of battle between the King of France and the Plantagenets.  The last Lord of Déols died on his return from the Crusades, leaving behind him more than a thousand vassals living between the Char and the Gartempe to a little girl three years old.  The young Denise of Déols, whose odyssey was related in the last century by Just Veillat, was first raised by her uncle at Chateaumeillent, then given to the King of England, and finally married at Salisbury to Andre de Chauvigny.

The siege of the Chateau Raoul by Philippe-Auguste was related in Latin verses by the royal poet.  Philippe-Auguste took the fortress, but not until 18 May 1188, and then by surprise.  The treaty signed in 1200 with Jean-sans-tarre gave Philippe-Auguste possession of the fields of the Bas-Berry, which then ceased being a military boundary to the powerful duchy of Aquitaine.

During the 13th century, the city expanded.  Its "bourgeois" felt themselves strong enough to demand process from their lord if he did not respect the terms of the charter of 1208.

The Hundred Years' War however brought insecurity.  In 1356, the Black Prince, [Prince Edward of England] out of spite for not having been able to take the chateau, had the city burned.  Bands of pillagers ravaged it again in 1374.  Finally, in 1441, the inhabitants described the city as "well closed-in and surrounded by towers and strong high old walls."

Wool manufacturing was already prospering, according to Chaumeau.  "There isn't a small artisan, merchant, or bourgeois who doesn't delight in draping himself."

Baron of Chauvigny, then County Marquise in 1575 of the Aumont Family which inherited half of it, and finally ducal-peerage under Henry II of Conde,  the city was sold to the King in 1735.  Louis XV made a gift of it in 1743 to the Marquise de Tournelle.  Madame de Châteauroux hardly profited of the gift, however, for she died a year later at the age of 23.

The laying out in 1756 of the Paris-Toulouse route abandoned the network of narrow streets and caused the city to be encircled by promenades (Places Lafayette and Gambetta), Rue Bombardon (Rue Victor Hugo) and Rue Pressoir (Rue Jean Jacques Rousseau).

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In 1790, the Revolution made Châteauroux the chief city of the department, because of its central location.  George Sand, in her novel NANON, described the troubled hours of the Terror in front of the Porte aux Guedons, then the city prison.

In 1836, was constructed the circle of boulevards which today permit a fortunate deviation of automobile traffic from the center of town.  The town-councellor of the period, it must be said, had no other end than to facilitate the collection of city tolls. 

Railway service from Paris came about in 1847, and the city limits were extended to the railway station.  The population rose slowly - 8736 in 1789; 18,670 in 1872; and 25,000 in 1910.

In spite of important industries, Châteauroux has remained the "bourgeois city" which George Sand knew and which excited the malise of Jean Giroudoux:  "Oh Châteauroux, the ugliest city of France."  To which he added:  "I accept all your side streets, I turn you upside-down, I disarrange your hair, I love you."

The first World War gave the city an air base.  Peace restored, construction of homes began anew; the boulevards were lengthened, forming a star from which routes radiate to nearly all corners of the department.  Growth of the city stopped with the last war, but afterwards the city extended to include St-Denis, St-Christophe, Touvent, Grands-Champs, Beaulieu, and the new quarters.  The population rose from 28,578 in 1936; to 36,240 in 1957, and 44,000 in 1959.

PROMENADES IN OLD Châteauroux

From Place de la Republique go to Rue Amiral-Ribourt.  The Church of Our Lady, RomaneSqdnue in style, was finished in 1882.  In building it, the architect Dauverne, was inspired by the church at Issoire.  The cupolo of the Church bears a gold-leafed statue of the Virgin, 6 meters high.  The belfry rises to 50 meters.  Inside, are capitals by Girault-Dupin and a colonnade around the choir made of veined granite monoliths.  In the garden is a 16th century Piets.  Facing the porch of the church, at the entry of Rue Porta-Neuve, a pillar engraved with the date 1737 recalls on the ancient gates of the city, demolished during the 18th century.

PLACE DU PALAN, marks the fortifications of the Chateau Raoul to the Southeast.  To the right still stands a tower and, close by, the street marking the ramparts.  Number 8 Rue de la Prefecture, presents some remains of the Church of St Martin:  on the gable, the archway of the door; in the court the roof of a chapel.  The church existed in 927 near the entry of the chateau, according to old documents.

To the left of the Place de la Victoire-et des Allies, on top of an enclosed wall is a tower of the former enclosure, which leads to Rue Jaux-Marins.  At the end of the Sqdnuare, stands the Monument of the Dead of the Department, inaugurated in 1932.  The sculptures of the two Berrichonnes in hoods symbolize two sorrows of differing expression; that of the mother and that of the wife.  They are the work of Ernest Nivet.

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GARDEN DE LA PREFECTURE.  The interior facade of the Chateau Raoul, in the decor of large trees, shows the severe elegance of the end of the Middle Ages.  The Gothic doorway opens into an octagonal turreted stairway, whose windows with pierced balustrades give a gracious effect.  The original chateau was destroyed by fire in 1366.  Folowing this "grand embrrasement" (great burning), the lords, deprived of their "chastel, hostel, et donjou," (castle, hostal, and dungeon) lived in their fortresses of Cluis-Desscus and St-Chartier.  The hall of the Concellor General is decorated with great landscapes by the artists Bertran, Maillaud and Adam.  In this chateau was born in 1773 Henri Gatien Bertrand, son of a sub-delegate of the Intendent.  In 1778, Claude Dupin, Farmer General, his wife Aurore de Saxe and their child, Maurice, father of George Sand, come to live in the chateau.

Until her death, in 1694, the wife of the Grande Conde, Claire Clemence de Maille Braze, niece of Richelieu, lived in the chateau.  A strange quarrel had ended thirty years of common life with two husbands and the princess from that time on for 24 years lived at Châteauroux in residence, under surveillance.  She was buried without display in the Church of St Martin.

The hotel of the Prefecture dates from 1826.  On the pediment is an allegorical statue by Girault-Dupin.  From the terrace is a very beautiful view over the Valley of the Indre and the faulbourg St-Christophe.

At the entrance of the Rue de la Vieille Prison, to the left, the departmental archives are housed; to the right, a pinion carries a solitary dial-plte with this motto:  "It is always the time to do well."  The printer Badel had as apprentice in 1829, the young Napoleon Chaix, who created the Central Printing Office of the Railways.  Old houses with brown roofs frame a sloping paved street.  Here is the Gate of the Old Prison, restored in the 16th century.  This gate probably serves as an emblem for Châteauroux' armories.  The arcade, in full circle, has kept in its blackened stones the grooves of the barrow.  The tower served as prison until 1742.  On the first floor, an inscription from 1748 testifies to the existence of a School of St Cosmos for surgeons.

Like Giraudoux, one can go up Rue Descente-de-Ville, and among the ancient streets of Châteauroux.  There remain here old greyed facades; and the names of the little streest are engraved in the stone.  One recalls Jean Lauron, fiscal procurer of the country, judge of St-Gildas, and poet, who wrote a sonnet to the city of Châteauroux, and in 1595 the epitaph of Narshal d'Aumont.  At the left corner of the Rue du Palan, is one of the last workshops of times past.  At the right corner of Rue des Notaires, is an old 16th century bourgeois dwelling called the House of the Cadran.  At number 4, a toll house presents the remains of milioned windows, mouldings, buttresses, and a turret with a pointed roof.  At number 5, the poet Maurice Rellinet spent his childhood.  Some ancient inscriptions in corner stones are found in Rue du Pere-Adam and Rue du Grand-Mouton.  In the latter to the left, is the ascent of the Grande Echelle" (Great Ladder) at the base of which are the houses along Rue de L'Indre.

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The past has left on Rue des Pavillons some monumental doorways which give access to large private hotels, some pictureSqdnue dwellings, and some guardstones.

In this street, the "Petite Echelle" lets out, its steps descending among the old roofs onto the Rue de L'Indre.  The stream runs here in the middle of the pavement.  Farther on, Rue Doree, is a lovely 18th century building, the Musee Bertrand, which is worth a visit especially for its Napolaonic souvenirs.

On Rue Alain-Fournier stands the former Church of the Cordeliers which belonged to a convent founded in 1213 by Guillaume I of Chauvigny.  It was consecrated three years later.  During the Revolution, it served as a cathedral to the constitutional bishop surnamed "the bishop of snow: (l'eveque de neige).  Afterwards, it became a Temple of Reason.  Returned t the church after the Concordate under the title of St Andre, it was mocularized in 1876.  From the steps of the facade is a lovely birds' eye view down Rue de L'Indre and over old Chataeuroux.  The rectuangular nave of the church has been partially included in a a school.  In the Lapidary Museum, founded in 1921, one can estimate the dimensions of the church.  It has high Gothic windows, and some traces of 15th century frescos:  medallions of the Apostres, and a "litre seigneurals" with the arms of the Chauvignys and La Tour Landry.

In the apse is a lovely 13th century rose window of the Last Judgment, and some fragments of windows from the same period.  In the sanctuary is a large woodcarved baldaquino the six twisted columns of which are decorated with wine branches.

The Promenade des Cordeliers became Place Ste-Heleno in 1854 when the statue of Genral Bertrand was erected.  The sculptor Rude has represented the Grand Marshal of the Palace arriving from Ste-Helene and carrying to France the sword of Austerlitz and the testament of the Emporer.

On Place Lafayette stands the Monument of the Dead of the City, inaugurated in 1937.  This work, of rugged and moving simplicity, showing the tears of a mother and her son, is in the tradition of the Berricon sculptor Ernest Nivet.  On Rue Grande, near the Church of St-0Martial, are old houses of artisans which Standhal saw in the last century and which he found "pleines de physionomie" (full of character).  At the corner of Rue Monteboulin (today Rue du Dr Borton), stands the former Hostel-Dieu St -Jacques, whose windows are orgivally arched.

The name of the Church St-Martial dates from the 12th century.  This church was at first an annex of the primitive parish-priory of St-Denis.  The windows seem to date from the 14th century, and the Gothic-style belfry was built during the 15th century by a rich bourgeois of the city.

The Rue Descente des Cordeliers leads to the Municipal Museum, rich in Napoleonic souvenirs.  There died General Bertand on 3 January 1844.  

../... But the Museum's wealth is not limited to this; we can admire paintings from different opochs, ceramics, tapestries and masterpieces of berrichon artists like Bernard Maudin, Barnand Mailland, Paul Rue, Leon Detroy and the sculptor Ernest Nivet.  Very close to the Museum, the Saint-Martial church with a fine Renaissance steeple.  On the way down the street, the church of the "Gordeliers" (a monasticorder) today turned to another use.  It belonged to the Franciscar Convent settled in 1213 by Guillaure de Chauvigny and sheltered the blissful Bonencontre whose relics are conserved in the Saint-Martial church.  It is said that Saint-Antonio de Padcue stayed there and that his cell has not been destroyed before the XIXth century.  Today, it is still possible to see a rose window from the XIII th century representing the Last Judgment and a stone typmpanum coming from a door of the Déols Abbey.

But, Châteauroux is noteworthy only of its past; it is also a town in full expansion with its new quarters, its industrial zone, its Social Center, its high school for girls, the military Base of La Martinerie, gigantic installation, presently serving the Nato, and the very long cemented runway near the highway to Paris.  People come here for work from the whole department and from even further.  Every morning, trains and busses carry in the laborers living in the villages and in the country.

Châteauroux, we have said, is a center that radiates and from which we radiate.  The forest with its high trees and its "La Bonno-Bame-du_Othene Chapel (The Good Lady of the Oak), the Valencay Chateau where the Balloyrand's shadow still passes, Reuilly, with itsdelightful and famous white vines, the Breahe, its pools, its "chateau du Bouchet" towering the "Mor Rouge" pool and the Gargantua's shoes scattered here and there in the fields.

The distance is not very important from our town to the Greuse Valley, the "Souels (curl) du Pin" promontory, Gargilesso, city of the Artiste, with its old RomaneSqdnue church, and its keep.

The Bas-Berry is, first of all, the George San country.  Let us go on the way toward Le Chatre, we arrive on the Corlay hillside where we can disccover the entire Black Valley with is small fields flanked with bid gedges and thick groves, let us take a few steps to Sebant. Home of the author and her work:  "La Petite Padate" and "La Varo au Diablo."  An old rustic place, shaded by some elms whose age is counted by centureis; a small church very low, with a porch and >>>> millers; the chateau which sheltered in the last century, so many famous ........ and theater and the cemetery where also rests, she who has incarnated this Berry.

We enjoy whispering with Bagriel Vigond - "What quietness under the shelter of interlaced branches."

It is time to leave, the night is coming.  Châteauroux calls for us with its plays of light in the flowered parks, its restaurants, its .... and theater.

Jacques du Vasson
President de l'Academie du Centre

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Rue Grande was the old commercial street of Châteauroux and the natal street of the poet Gabriel Nigond.  The pupils of the lycee passed by there, and Jean Giraudoux was able to say in his adorable Clio:  "On this sidewalk all my steps are marked."

Place de L'hotel de Ville has lost its pictureSqdnuesness of former times when it had its church of St-Andre, its auditorium and its House of the Templers.  Meanwhile, the market which overruns the sidewalks keeps its local tone:  the small products from the Forest of Châteauroux.  According to the season, you will see there the catkins of springs, the lilly-of-the valley, the genista in flower, quaking grass, butcher's broom, mushrooms, wild fruits, moss, prickwood, mistle-toe and holly.

In this colorful and animated quarter was born at number 9 Rue des Halles, the painter, designer and engraver Bernard Naudin.