Middle Age Foundation In 993, the
Archbishop of Tours, Archembault de Sully, made a donation of the Saint-Sulpice church (or, more precisely, of an oratory) to the monks of the
Marmoutier abbey – the toponym Louroux comes from the Latin word
oratorium and literally means oratory, "place of prayer". This deed is the oldest manuscript document relating to Louroux. However, as with the eighteen other priories erected in
Touraine by the abbacy of Marmoutier, At the time of its foundation, the Louroux's establishment was the seat of a
castellany held by the abbey of Marmoutier, whose ruler possessed "the titles and prerogatives of lord of Louroux with the
rights of
high, medium and low justice". have held land at Lavatorii (fief du Lavoir, commune of
Veigné) from their
Tenant-in-chief Thibault de Braord, knight of Montbazon, since the foundation of the monastic establishment, in exchange for an annual cens of 200
denarius. On Braord's death, his wife Audierne demanded one
setier of wheat and 4 setiers of wine in addition to the cens. The monks refused, the dispute was brought before the court of Montbazon and Braord's widow's claim was rejected. The Ulgers, another seigneurial family than the Sainte-Maure, are also linked to the priory's history. Relations between the priory and this family date back to the first half of the 11th century. An undated charter shows that Archembault and Ulger, two of the sons of Ulger,
doyen of Saint-Martin, renounced "all uses and royalties whatsoever that their father Ulger possessed on the lands of the said religious called Louroux". In February 1067, Geoffroy, the youngest son of doyen Ulger, in return for 100
sous, paid by Barthélémy, abbot of Marmoutier, ceded his
rights of use and custom over the Louroux Priory. During Barthélémy's abbacy, between 1064 and 1084, an individual named Ainard de Sainte-Maure donated ten serfs from the Louroux parish. Towards the late 12th century, between 1080 and 1100, his son Hugues de Sainte-Maure sought to obtain half the tithe and
agistment rights belonging to the priory of Le Louroux. Ardonius, the
prior in charge of Le Louroux at the time, did not give in to his demands; the dispute was settled through a duel, and Sainte-Maure's attempt failed. The first buildings to be erected, the Prior's residence and the Church of Saint-Sulpice, date back to the 12th century. The oldest building is probably the one used to house the prior. According to André Montoux, the church dedicated to Saint Sulpice, donated in the early 990s, was entirely rebuilt at the end of the 12th century. Archaeologist
Robert Ranjard, on the other hand, believes that the current nave was constructed in the 13th century. Other archaeologists, Elisabeth Lorans and Edward Impey, corroborate this claim. In 1146, an individual named Hugues Ancipitrencis sold six acres of land located "near the Gaultier elm" ("
juxta ulnum Gaulterii") to the monks of Louroux. A sum of 30 sous, plus an annual fee of six deniers, were paid in return. A dispute arose between the priory of Le Louroux and that of Saint-Bauld between 1180 and 1188, concerning the
tithe levied on the fief of Armançay – then known by its Latinized toponym
Hermentiaci. The disagreement over the levying of Armançay, an estate located on the border between Tauxigny-Saint-Bauld and Le Louroux, resulted in the official materialization of the border between the two parishes.
Fortification From 1210 to 1220, according to the Marmoutier charters, Hugues des Roches, who was abbot of the
Marmoutier Abbey, at the time, may have been responsible for building the
aula (main hall), refurbishing the residence, building a barn, and fortifying the site. Within the ''Grande chronique de Touraine d'André Salmon
, the following text refers to these events:« Sextus decimus abbas fuit Hugo [...] In Lavatorio ipse fecit fierimagna œdificia et plurimos reditus acquisivit, et in Lavatorio hic œdificavit aulam et grangiam et vetera œdificia reparavit, et muris cinxit totum manerium.'' (Hugues was the sixteenth abbot [...] At the Louroux, he himself enlarged the dwelling and enriched it with numerous revenues, and at the Louroux, he built a large hall and a barn and repaired the old dwelling, and surrounded the entire manor with a wall). » — André Salmon, 1854, p. 325.Nonetheless, attributing this construction to the initiative of the abbot of Marmoutier needs to be nuanced: according to Impey and Lorans, it is not impossible that this was an older building that Des Roches only had repaired, and that this same
aula was destroyed at a later date. and counter-seal of
Hardouin V de Maillé. In 1221, a knight named Geoffroy Isoré donated one-third of two acres of meadow to the priory. This land is close to the mill ceded in 991 by Archbishop Archembault Sully. Towards the end of the 13th century, in a deed dated 5 May 1287, Hardouin V de Maillé and his wife Jeanne de Beauçay, then owners of a manor in the Louroux section of Armançay, relinquished all
breading, smoking preservation and cornage rights they held over the Louroux monks. The second phase of construction involved the fortification of the site. This phase probably dates from the early 14th century, rather than from Des Roches' abbatiate in the early 13th century. It involved digging the
moat and building the
wall. ratified the rights of the seigneur du Louroux in 1334. The high, medium, and low rights of justice, as well as the setiers of wheat and wine granted to the lord of the Louroux, were made public and ratified by
letters patent from
King Philippe VI of France in 1334. The monarch of the House of Valois instructed the officers of Montbazon to bring a detainee named Geoffroy before the Louroux jurisdiction. Payment of these taxes, amounting to 36 gold
ducats (equivalent to 60 pounds in
current currency), were made on behalf of Louis Februarii, then parish priest of the church of Saint-Sulpice, and to the
sede vacante of Raoul de La Forge (or de La Forja), a priest of the diocese of Tours, who renounced his diocesan title before the
Holy See. In 1537, Philippe Hurault succeeded Matthieu Gautier as Abbot of Marmoutier. Early on in 1598, during the
Eighth War of Religion,
Huguenot troops led by a man named Mussant stormed the priory and damaged the buildings. Between 1721 and 1739, during the Bourbon-Condé's abbacy, several works were undertaken. A lease signed in 1784 details the real assets that made up the Louroux estate before the revolutionary events.
Contemporary period Succession of private ownership sketched the priory. The purchaser of the Louroux estate, Robert Godeau, a citizen of Loches and "premier suppléant au tribunal" and "inspecteur des eaux et des forêts", paid in several installments, the last of which was dated 7
prairial An III (26 May 1795, in the
Gregorian calendar).
Heritage protection and restoration campaign The fortified site, in particular the logis prieural, was used as a set for the filming of
Mauregard, On 19 December 1973, via ministerial decree, the church of Saint-Sulpice was listed on the
Inventaire supplémentaire des monuments historiques In the first half of the 1990s, the town council acquired the abbey farm's buildings and the adjoining estate. Two years later, on 31 December 2004, the last tenant farmer left the priory. The restoration work was led by Arnaud de Saint-Jouan,
chief architect for historic monuments. The development of the monastery buildings into a "local tourism hub" was envisaged for 2012. And in 2013, as part of the cultural, heritage and town-planning development of the Louroux, the Communauté de communes du Grand Ligueillois' tourism commission, launched a new project for the former priory buildings. The project consisted of housing the conservatory of clerical vestments in the barn; setting up a research and documentation center, a conference room, and permanent exhibitions in the barn built in the 15th century; as well as setting up an
artistic residence and permanent exhibitions in the prior's residence; with the
classical-era barn and inner courtyard dedicated to theatrical and other cultural events. The project also includes the installation of a
botanical greenhouse for local species in the garden and kitchen garden adjoining the former lourousian fortified complex. The turret was restored in the mid-2010s. And, in July 2015, The priory, which "offers a complex architectural evolution from the 12th – 13th centuries to the 19th century", In the 2010s, the Louroux priory opened up to tourism, specifically in June 2013, during an agricultural festival, where the Louroux complex welcomed around 1,300 visitors, and in June 2015 several themed guided tours were organized there, followed by an arts festival in September 2017. == Buildings and structures ==