Château de La Ferté-Imbault, Medieval castle in La Ferté-Imbault, France

Château de La Ferté-Imbault is a rectangular brick building with a lighter stone pattern across its red facade, its central section rising to a grey slate roof topped by a small domed cupola. Two square towers with steep grey roofs flank it, two tall brick chimneys stand behind the roofline, and a stone balustrade runs above an arcade of round arches at the base. The foundations of the two medieval towers and the old armoury survive.

A first fortress was built around 980 by Humbold Le Tortu, lord of Vierzon, its foundations and old armoury still surviving; the Sauldre fed its moat. Taken and destroyed during the Hundred Years' War, the estate passed in 1424 from Catherine de Montmorency to Robert II d'Estampes. Rebuilt in the Renaissance, it was partly burned in 1562 and enlarged in the early 17th century by Jacques d'Estampes, first marquis of La Ferté-Imbault.

The château gave its name to the La Ferté-Imbault infantry regiment, renamed by Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, in the 18th century. The hearts of Marshal Jacques d'Estampes and his wife Catherine-Blanche de Choiseul rest in the chapel of Saint-Taurinus under an epitaph. A bust of Louis XIII still adorns the former guardhouse pavilion.

The château stands in La Ferté-Imbault, in Loir-et-Cher, with the Sauldre dividing into channels around the grounds. The two medieval tower bases and the old armoury survive from the fortress begun around 980. Look for the bust of Louis XIII in the former guardhouse pavilion. The hearts of Marshal d'Estampes and his wife lie in the Saint-Taurin chapel beneath an epitaph.

The two square towers flanking the central block keep the bases of the medieval fortress begun around 980 by Humbold Le Tortu, lord of Vierzon, and the old armoury hall also survives. The Sauldre still feeds the moat that once protected it.