Friday 25 October 2013

The mysterious tower...


On one of our many sojurns into the Vienne with friends Mike and Liz (who are now proud grandparents) this year I dragged them along some country roads we had not been on before while 'steeple chasing' (without horses) that lead us to the village of Monthoiron. There is nothing to write home about here other than its 11/12 century church (of which I haven't as yet written about - told you so!). I was however distracted by some ornate gates down a non-adopted road that lead to a chateau - you can see the gates and more info on the village on this blog. As we drove past,the tower pictured above caught our eye as an odd construction  in an odd location.

How right were we! The “Tour de l’Architecte”, as it has been christened, is now being hailed as "one of the most mysterious and original monument of the first Renaissance in France" by them that knows  and is said to have used the architectural concepts of Leonardo da Vinci. 


The aim now is to have it ready, in some form or other to be visited in time for the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci in Amboise (May2019) and I'm sure they hope, bring in many tourists.You can see the towers location here on 'google earth'.

                                                                                                                                                                    

No comments:

Post a Comment