Vendôme

Vendôme stands on the Loir in central France. Its castle and the abbey of the Trinity, founded around 1030, were important centres of lordship and religious life. Vendôme was the chief town of a county that passed by inheritance to the Bourbon family; in 1515 it was raised to a duchy and peerage for Charles of Bourbon.

During the Wars of Religion, the Catholic League held the town and castle until Henry IV besieged them in 1589. In 1598 the king granted the duchy to his son César de Bourbon. The abbey church, developed over several centuries, remained a prominent part of the town's religious and architectural heritage.