Our region has seemingly been inhabited since the dawn of time. However, precious little evidence remains of the earliest people and their tools. The oldest traces discovered so far date from the Neolithic period (standing stones, Bronze Age tools, Iron Age tumuli).

What remains from antiquity and the Middle Ages?
During the Gallic period, the Turones tribe settled in the area and turned to farming and the rearing of cattle, goats and sheep. Cultivated fields stretched out on both sides of the River Indre. Furthermore, the forests offered an abundance of resources (wood for fuel and building, tools and tool handles, brushwood, bedding and fodder for cattle, not to mention the profusion of game...) and the Bréhémont marshes provided an inexhaustible supply of fish.

The Roman Conquest left its mark on the district, with one of the most important Roman roads, between Tours and Poitiers, passing through Pont-de-Ruan and Thilouze.
The area was divided into estates. Without doubt, the most "Gallo-Roman" of the communities was Cheillé. Sensational discoveries have been made in three of its localities: les Cercueils, la Grand-Marion and la Rémonière.

The barbarian invasions which followed the Pax Romana prompted local residents in fear for their lives to dig "underground refuges". Whole families huddled together underground while invaders came and went above their heads. The underground refuge at Les Goupillères is a very evocative example.

Around the year 1000, numerous castles were aready in existence, either occupying the high ground (Ussé, Rivarennes, Saché, La Chevrière, La Cour, La Chatonnière, Villaines), protected by wide moats (La Roche, Le Châtelet, Fontenay), or sheltered by the marshes (Azay, l’Islette, Fouchault).
At the outset, these fortresses were of very basic construction, being little more than camps protected by stockades and ditches, with a centrally positioned square wooden tower serving as a keep. The primitive nature of these castles meant that flammable wood was eventually replaced by stone for the building of first the keeps and then the defensive walls.

In 1213, the king appointed 55 knight bannerets in Touraine in exchange for men-at-arms, archers and crossbowmen. One of these knights was Hugues Ridel, who gave his name to Azay, which at that time was called " le Ridel".

Life in the feudal system meant a heavy burden of direct taxation and compulsory work for the peasants, the majority of whom were serfs. However, the nobility, needing to increase their revenues and realising it was in their best interest, decided to grant greater freedoms to their serfs and start populating unproductive areas of land. This led to the colonisation of the flood plains of Bréhémont and the lower part of Ussé.
This marked the beginning of the construction of the dyke on the left bank of the Loire. The local inhabitants constructed an embankment of sand, which was plastered over with two thick layers of clay and consolidated with stakes and bundles of brushwood prior to the planting of trees. Then houses began to appear on this dyke, which was robust enough to resist the floodwaters and protect crops. Seeing the success of the undertaking, the inhabitants of the flood plains spread throughout the lowlands and countryside of Ussé, Bréhémont and Chapelle-aux-Naux.

It was at the time of the Crusades that the majority of our rural churches were built, replacing the modest oratories built of stone and wood in the previous era. This wave of construction was both rapid and simultaneous.

When Azay-le-Rideau was known as "Azay-le-Brûlé"
One of the most dramatic moments in the history of Azay-le-Rideau remains the massacre of 354 people. In 1418, after the Dauphin Charles had failed in his attempt to capture the town of Tours from the Duke of Burgundy, he decided to fall back on Chinon. While passing by Azay-le-Rideau, the inhabitants refused to help and showered him with insults. In reprisal, the king ordered the castle to be burnt, killing all of the people inside. Henceforth, the town became known as "Azay-le-Brûlé".

In 1442, during a period of calm, the king authorised the rebuilding of Azay. This time, the inhabitants' new houses would be protected by a defensive wall complete with towers and entered via the gateways of la Varenne, Tours (at the carrefour du Grand Monarque) and the Château (rue Balzac). The bridge gateway was fortified by two large towers. Deep moats surrounded the walls, following a course which today is marked by the rues de l’Abreuvoir, Carnot and du Château, before skirting the Place de la République (formerly a cemetery) and rejoining the River Indre, which supplied the moats with water. The castle, mill and hospital to the north remained outside the walls.

The building of châteaux and manor houses
The era of Louis XI (1423-1483)
This period was synonymous with peace. A multitude of elegant manor houses, sober in decoration but pure in design, covered our entire region. Three of these châteaux stand out in particular, due to their importance and history:
- The Château d'Azay-le-Rideau, an incomparable residence whose principal attraction is the uniquely harmonious relationship between the building and its surrounding landscape. Lord Gilles Berthelot, State Treasurer and Mayor of Tours can be credited with the building of the present château. He married the daughter of Sire Lesbahy, owner of the château since 1498, who included the residence in the dowry of his daughter, "la belle Phillippe". The latter was responsible for supervising the building works, but in 1527, everything stopped when the château was handed over to Antoine Raffin, a friend of François I.
- 2 kilometres from Azay lies l’Islette, a château occupying a very similar site on the banks of the River Indre.
- The third jewel in the Indre valley is Ussé. Both feudal in nature and brimming with Renaissance charms, it was built on the site of an austere fortress by Jacques d’Espinay and his son Charles between 1485 and 1535.

And during the Revolution?
The storming of the Bastille sent shockwaves throughout the whole of France. From July 21st 1789 onwards, crowds of ordinary people headed to the grain stores of Tours and started pillaging. Their example was followed at Azay. On July 30th, at the demand of the assembled citizens, the town council instructed the gendarmes to arrest the troublemakers, and so began the period of "Grande Peur" (Great Fear).
But calm was eventually restored: equal rights and the abolition of feudality, compulsory labour and internal customs were important steps forward. Other measures were also well received, such as the division of France into départements, districts (seven of which were created for Indre-et-Loire), cantons and communes: the smallest administrative subdivisions.
Azay found itself at the head of a canton including Cheillé, Villaines, Thilouze, Vallères, Saché and Lignières. Rigny-Ussé was the administrative centre of another canton consisting of Rivarennes, Bréhémont, La Chapelle-aux-Naux and Saint-Benoît. Each was provided with a Justice of the Peace, who was elected by the residents.

New exchanges and new communication routes
After 1830, a programme of renovation for the by-roads between the communes was launched. This also included the construction of new roads and the bridge between La Chapelle-aux-Naux at Langeais.
Improved communications promoted the transport and sale of agricultural products (as Tours had rail links to Paris, Nantes, Bordeaux, Le Mans, Chartres and Vierzon). Boat traffic, which had previously enjoyed unstoppable growth, now began to decline in the face of such competition.
However, the most significant event was the creation of the Tours - Sables-d’Olonne railway line and on April 15th 1875, the first train finally stopped off at Azay.

It is tempting to think that the river, weary of being forced to serve mankind, chose to take advantage of its diminished status by rebelling against humanity and its levees: three major floods swept away these constructions like matchsticks in 1846, 1856 and 1866.

The late 19th century economic booms
Industry was flourishing and the arrival of modern industry was heralded by a steam-driven paper mill, founded by the Mame brothers in Marnay in 1870.
Then came the wine-growing crisis of 1880-1890. Phylloxera and its companion mildew ravaged the industry. Little by little, the fightback began and while wine growers did not manage to completely eradicate the scourge, they at least found a way to live with it through the introduction of American stock and the use of chemical sprays.
Shad and salmon fishing developed on the Loire at the beginning of the 20th century, especially after the river had stopped being used for river transportation.
From 1870 onwards, huge changes came to affect our rural areas. Residents saw the arrival of a wave of innovations: agricultural machinery, paraffin lamps, the telegraph, telephone, bicycles, electricity, the cinema, cars and running water, all of which have had a profound impact on our way of life.

The two World Wars
After the " Belle Epoque" came the "rude awakening": on August 1st 1914, news of the declaration of war was posted on town hall doors. During the conflict, Azay became a military town and then a garrison town. In our purely agricultural area, it was a real struggle to replace the men who were called up. Victory bells finally rang out on November 11th 1918, but the price was horrendously high: 453 men killed out of 3,805 inhabitants. After such heavy losses, it is little wonder that the following twenty years between 1919 and 1939 were a period of stagnation on all fronts (agricultural, industrial, commercial), marked by a diminished birth rate.

The beginning of the 1939-1945 war was notable for the relocation of the Ministry of State Education to our canton. The offices of the executive management were established in the château of Azay, temporarily emptied of its furniture. The other departments were scattered throughout the canton. After a relatively calm winter and spring, the German armies gained ground and the armistice was signed on June 17th 1940. The first Germans appeared on Friday June 21st. The beginning of July saw the occupation of Cheillé, Azay and Villaines, chosen for the billeting of troops.

Source: Histoire d'Azay et de son canton -Jacques MAURICE