Office de Tourisme
COMMUNAUTAIRE
Châteauroux Sud Berry
1 Place de La Gare
36000 CHATEAUROUX
Tél. : 02 54 34 10 74
Contact
Visits and leisure
Visits and leisure
Art and History
44 totems (tourist information signs) are dotted around Châteauroux, informing you of the history of the town as you go stroll along its streets.
29 - place de la Gare (totem to the right of the Tourist Office)
The entrance gate to the business incubator (former Boussac clothing factory) is by Méniot (in about 1900).
31 - place Voltaire (totem to the right of the church parvis)
This square is linked to the memory of Jérôme Legrand, a deputy of the Third Estate, and a lawyer who spearheaded the abolition of privileges. He came up with the name
"National Assembly" on the 16 June 1789 in Versailles, which was successfully and unanimously adopted. Come back by the rue Albert 1er until you reach the rue de la Gare.
28 - rue de la Gare
The numbers 10, 50, 51 and 72 have dormer windows topped with pinnacle turrets designed by the Master Carpenter, Hippolyte Moreau.
37 - place Saint-Cyran
Tribute to the sculptor Ernest Nivet, "le berger couché avec son chien" brings a touch of poetry and serenity to this square.
36 - place Gambetta (East)
The Chamber of Commerce and Industry displays a high relief by the sculptor, Janiot, and interior gardens by the landscape gardener, Gilles Clément.
35 - place Gambetta (West)
The 1870 War Memorial evokes "la petite Fadette" of George Sand.
34 - Place La Fayette (West)
This slope of the square was built on the site of the medieval ramparts, between the Porte Saint-Denis and the Porte Thibault.
32 - Place La Fayette (East)
La Fayette has replaced the name of Comte d'Artois, the last Duke of Châteauroux and
future King Charles X.
4 - place Saint-Hélène
No fewer than two statues of General Bertrand in Châteauroux! This one is by Rude (1784 - 1855), and the other statue in the courtyard of the Museum is by Marochetti (1805 - 1867).
5 - rue Grande
This was the main street of the city until the end of the 19th century; it has a 13th century house (no.35) and several 18th century mansions.
6 - rue Descente des Cordeliers
This cobblestoned street links the Bertrand Museum to the Franciscan Friary.
3 - rue Alain Fournier
The Franciscan Friary, one of the oldest and best preserved in France, now houses contemporary art exhibitions of international repute.
42 - Rue du Gué aux chevaux
In this street many washhouses in the early 20th century were to be found.
43 - Rue de l'Indre
From the Middle Ages to the mid-19th century, parchment makers, weavers, soapmakers, dyers and tanners worked here. This street was outside the ramparts of the town. The richest merchants and artisans preferred to live inside the ramparts in order to be as far away as possible from this noisy and foul-smelling district where a working population plied their trade. They reached their homes through narrow passages in the fortification: Descente de la Petite Echelle and Descente de la Grande Echelle.
10 - rue des Notaires
Maurice Rollinat, grandson of George Sand, spent his youth here. He wrote "Les Névroses" in 1883, having been inspired by the works of Baudelaire and Poe. He quickly became famous and interpreted his own music and poetry in the fashionable cafes of the Latin Quarter and Montmartre.
41 - Porte Machet
Erected by the lords of Déols in the 10th century on a defensive site, the Château Raoul (Raoul's Castle) became quickly surrounded by a small town that was called from the 12th century "Château Raoul", and then by the contraction "Châteauroux".
14 - rue de la Vieille Prison
The old prison gate was the only access to Raoul's Castle until the late 18th century.
13 - place de la Victoire et des Alliés
From this square we can see the inner facade of the castle. "Les Pleureuses" is the work of the sculptor, Ernest Nivet.
12 - Place Roger Brac
At the top of the square Saint Martin's Church, which happens to be the remains of the chapel of the original 10th century Raoul's Castle, was once a collegiate church but is now secularised.
11 - place du Palan
In old French, ‘palanc’ can refer to a road where the ballast is held together by stakes. The people of the Berry region are too mild-mannered to assume that torture by impalement was practised here and which consisted of thrusting a stake into the condemned person’s body.
20 - rue Grande (by the rue Jean Lauron)
Gabriel Nigond (1877 - 1937) was born in no.149 and was the author of around a dozen successful plays. His father got his first poems printed as far back as 1894.
21 - rue Dauphine
One of the oldest streets of the town that had been formerly named rue Dauphin in tribute to King Louis XIV until 1888 when the Town Council decided to modify the name.
22 - Rond-Point du Bombardon
This roundabout is named after a subterranean stream that flows under the rue Victor Hugo and into the river Indre at the foot of Raoul's Castle.
19 - rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Finished in 1882, Notre Dame Church has been built in the Romanesque style of Orcival Church near Issoire.
23 - rue de la République (after taking the rue des Arts)
“La Maison du Peuple”(the community centre) has had various uses: it held boxing matches in the fifties and variety shows from the sixties up to eighties. It then became a university, and is now a youth centre.
24 - place Renault-Barrault
This is a cultural centre that has a media library and a theatre stage. This stage is the largest one in the Centre region with a span of 22 metres. The quality of the acoustics is exceptional: only a difference of three decibels between the first row of the stalls and the last row of the balcony.
26 - rue du Palais de Justice
The first buildings of the collège were erected in 1882/1886 on the site of the Capuchin convent and chapel. The Neoclassical Courthouse was unveiled in 1865.
27 - rue Ledru Rollin
At number 23, the snack bar "Joe From Maine" opened in 1952 by a former GI, recalls the American presence in Châteauroux between 1951 and 1967.
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