Château-Renault
Encyclopedia
Château-Renault is a commune
Communes of France
The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...

 in the Indre-et-Loire
Indre-et-Loire
Indre-et-Loire is a department in west-central France named after the Indre and the Loire rivers.-History:Indre-et-Loire is one of the original 83 départements created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790...

 department in central France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. The town of Chateau-Renault is located equidistant between the cities of Tours and Vendome and can be reached on train services on the Tours-Paris or Tours-Vendome lines. The commune includes the settlements of Villedomer, Les Hermites, Saunay, Auzouer, Neuville-sur-Brenne and Crotelles.

Evidence of early human occupation or the Loire Valley has been found such as the standing stones of Pierrefite and several hand tools, but the settlement of Chateau-Renault dates from the feudal wars that occurred in the 11th century between the Counts of Blois and the Counts of Anjou. In the early part of the century a loyal member of the court of the Count of Blois was charged by the construction of a defensive structure( most likely a simple wooden tower) on the site of the present chateau. He named this defensive structure after his son, Renaud. This was the origin of the towns name. However, the defensive strucute was not enough and the area was soon lost to the Counts of Anjou. It was under the new management that land was gifted for the construction of a chapel and a small settlement at the foot of the castle site.

The town was renowned throughout 19th century France for the leather produced there. High levels of Calcium Carbonate in the water gave the leather produced there a thick, resistant nature and the arrival of the railway in 1867 ensured that the product had access to a market.

It is twinned with the towns Ripley
Ripley, Derbyshire
Ripley is a town in the Amber Valley area of Derbyshire in England.- Earliest history :Not much information is available as to when Ripley was founded, but it existed at the time of the Domesday Book, when it was held by a man called Levenot....

 (United Kingdom), Mülheim-Kärlich
Mülheim-Kärlich
Mülheim-Kärlich is a town in the district Mayen-Koblenz, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is part of the Verbandsgemeinde Weißenthurm. It is situated west of Koblenz, a few km from the Rhine.-References:...

 (Germany) and Covăsânţ (Romania).
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