The site of Saint-Loup is placed at a strategic position where Thouet and Cébron rivers meet. From the early days it was surrounded by military constructions. The first document of castle dates from the 12th century.
The keep, built in the Middle Ages, is the oldest part of existing castle. The Black Prince imprisoned in the famous Keep the French King John the Good after the battle of Poitiers in 1356. The entrance of the square tower was then protected by a portcullis. Today the keep and adjacent buildings have been converted into an amazing guest house with five bedrooms, sitting room & dining room.
Château de Saint-Loup was rebuilt in Renaissance style during the 16th century by Gouffier family. The present Château (1609-1626) was built by Claude and Louis: plan in the shape of an H in the honor of King Henry the IV th with wings disposed as separate entities and independent vertical roofs. The frescoes were painted in false brick. A campanile tops the central Pavillon. All these elements confer to the Château the architural style which existed at the beginning of classicism which is called the Louis XIII style.
From then on the domain is adorned by sumptuous gardens designed and built by the most prominent gardeners of their time. A document describes a meeting in 1631 between the Gardener of the Gouffier family Jamin with those of the Cardinal de Richelieu and Duke de la Trémoille.
In 1767 the Château is sold to Jean Haran de Borda, fermier général, who bequeaths it in 1772 to his nephew Jean d’Abbadie, an important magistrate. The Château remained the property of the d’Abbadie family until 1894.
References:Saint-Georges de Boscherville Abbey is a former Benedictine abbey. It was founded in about 1113 by Guillaume de Tancarville on the site of an earlier establishment of secular canons and settled by monks from the Abbey of Saint-Evroul. The abbey church made of Caumont stone was erected from 1113 to 1140. The Norman builders aimed to have very well-lit naves and they did this by means of tall, large windows, initially made possible by a wooden ceiling, which prevented uplift, although this was replaced by a Gothic vault in the 13th century. The chapter room was built after the abbey church and dates from the last quarter of the 12th century.
The arrival of the Maurist monks in 1659, after the disasters of the Wars of Religion, helped to get the abbey back on a firmer spiritual, architectural and economic footing. They erected a large monastic building one wing of which fitted tightly around the chapter house (which was otherwise left as it was).