Richelieu, Indre-et-Loire

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Coordinates: 47°00′54″N 0°19′28″E / 47.015, 0.324444444444

Administration
Commune of Richelieu
Location

Country	France
Region	Centre
Department	Indre-et-Loire
Arrondissement	Chinon
Canton	Richelieu
Intercommunality	Communauté de communes du Pays de Richelieu
Mayor	Pierre Gravel (2001-2008)
Statistics
Elevation	47 m–77 m
Land area^¹	5.09 km²
Population^² (1999)	2165
- Density	425/km²
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code	37196/ 37120
¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
² Population sans doubles comptes: residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel) only counted once.

Richelieu is a village or small town, and commune, in the Indre-et-Loire département of central-western France. It lies south of Chinon and west of Sainte-Maure de Touraine.

Surrounded by mostly agricultural land, its inhabitants are called Richelais, and Richelaises.

Because of its design as the "ideal city" of the seventeenth century, the town is the subject of protective measures for its architecture.

1 History
- 1.1 The Palace Park
2 Administration today
3 Festival
4 References
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] History

The village was a 17th Century "new town", or "model town". It was built at the order of Cardinal Richelieu, who had bought the village of his ancestors. He engaged the architect Jacques Lemercier, who was already responsible for the Sorbonne and the Palais Cardinal (now the Royal Palace in Paris). With the permission of the king, Louis XIII of France, his creation here was a walled town on a grid arrangement, and an adjacent palace, surrounded by an ornamental moat and large imposing walls just next to the town. Construction took place between 1631 and 1642 – the year of the Cardinal's death – and employed around 2000 workers.

The town itself is about 700 meters long by 500 meters wide. It is accessible by three monumental gates; a fourth, dummy gate exists to respect the symmetry of the whole. The urban plan revolves around two symmetrically arranged places: Place Royale (religious) and the Place du Cardinal (now Market Square), in which are grouped the presbytery, the "audience" (now the town hall), a covered open hall (still surviving, with wooden pillars and roof beams) and shops.

To ensure quick settlement, the Cardinal imposed no city taxes. In return, buyers of plots for construction undertook to build within two years a "flag" or a house according to the plans and specifications filed with the court of the city, while being forced to chose as builder one of the Cardinal's appointees. A register of specific transactions is kept, allowing historians to know today the list of owners of the original buildings of the city.

In 1343, salt became a state monopoly by order of King Philip VI of Valois, who established the gabelle, the tax on salt. Anjou is part of the "great gabelle" area and includes sixteen special tribunals or "salt granaries", including that of Richelieu.

According to Jean de La Fontaine, Richelieu was at the time of writing the "most beautiful village of the universe."

Upon the death of Cardinal, the city ceased to grow, but continued to have illustrious visitors, like Louis XIV of France, Jean de La Fontaine, and Voltaire.

In 1790, during the convening of the Estates General, representatives of the town of Richelieu sat with those of Mirebeau in the delegation of Saumur, within the generality of Tours. The same year, the town of Richelieu was separated from Saumur to integrate with the then new Department of Indre-et-Loire.

[edit] The Palace Park

After a period of decline, the palace was dismantled in the nineteenth century — not for any great political reasons, but by an estate agent. Elements of the fabric appear to have been reused on farms in the area.

The walled gardens remain, and are open as a public park. A few fragments of the palace buildings remain, such as the bridges over the moats, the "Honour Gateway", and some buildings from the service ranges; one of the latter is in use as a kind of museum or information centre and includes pictures and models of the palace as it once was. This building is covered in carved graffiti from visitors to the site, dating back at least as far as 1905, and including dated initials from the periods of both World War I and World War II, plus some graffiti from bearers of the Richelieu name.

There is a small shop and management office at the entrance, and a car park between that and the town.

[edit] Administration today

The mayor of Richelieu is Pierre Gravel, assisted by five deputies, including Herve Novelli, Secretary of State in charge of business and external trade in the French cabinet.