Loches Chancery: centaurs and museum
And also
The tops
Centaurs and oxes skulls
Skulls!
At number 12 of rue du Château, here’s a lovely Renaissance house: the Chancellerie (″Chancery″).
We have D and H on the façade (for Diane de Poitiers and her royal lover king Henri II of France).
Inscriptions say: Prudentia nutrisco (″Caution feed me″) and justicia regno (″I rule with justice″).
Below, the date of 1551 probably indicating the date of construction.
We also have oxes skulls designing a strange decorative frieze.
The centaur
Do you see the neighbouring house? It’s the ″Centaur’s house″, because of its low-relief.
It's the pretty Deianira, who one day tried to cross river Evenos with her companion Hercules.
But centaur Nessus turned up and helped Deianira to cross the water.
But he also tried to hurt her: Hercules shot him an arrow! We can see here the wounded centaur with an arrow on the chest, Deianira on his back. Hercules tried to shoot another arrow…
This low-relief would come from a chimney’s decoration.
The museum
What about the Chancery? It houses a little exhibition (free entrance) about Loches history: the castle, the fortifications… with plenty of pictures and engravings.