A secteur sauvegardé since 1973, and 153 historic monuments

Théâtre municipal ou Grand ThéâtreClasséAncienne maison canoniale de Saint-Gatien, dite du Curé de ToursClasséHôtel Mame, ou Lefebvre de MontifrayClasséHôtel de Jean Galland, ou Babou de la BourdaisièreClasséAncien archevêché, actuellement musée des Beaux-ArtsClassé+137See all photos

Photos from Wikimedia Commons, copied to our own server, each credited to its photographer with its license; names open the monument’s page.

A site patrimonial remarquable protects a whole area rather than one building: inside it, building work follows the area’s own plan and needs the agreement of the architecte des Bâtiments de France. A PSMV (plan de sauvegarde et de mise en valeur) is the strictest plan: it covers every building, inside as well as out.

The list gives no boundaries, so the map can’t show the area.

Classé is the higher protection: any work on the building needs the State’s permission. Work on an inscrit building must be declared to the State in advance. Around both, building work in sight of the monument (usually within 500 m) needs the agreement of the architecte des Bâtiments de France.

Points as the ministry gives them: a monument spread over several plots has one point. 1 monument has no point on the map.

36 more, named only by their kind

36 more are named in the list only by their kind: 25 houses (maisons), 8 town houses (hôtels), 1 building (immeuble) and 2 others, most from the 15th and 16th centuries. The 36 with an address are in the list above, by it.

See all 153 on the map

First protected, in 1840: Ancienne abbaye de Saint-Martin and Église paroissiale Saint-Julien (ancienne église de l'abbaye bénédictine Saint-Julien). That was France’s first list of monuments historiques, drawn up in Prosper Mérimée’s time as inspector. 53 were protected in 1946 alone. 4 have been added since 2011.

Everyone born in Tours Birthplaces from Wikidata, checked against Wikipedia.

Tours’s oldest monument, Ancien archevêché, actuellement musée des Beaux-Arts, dates from Antiquity. All told, the list holds 153 historic monuments, 34 of them classé, including Cloître Saint-Gatien dit La Psalette. Its old center has been a secteur sauvegardé since 1973. For its size, it has more historic monuments than 87% of compared French towns.

Enceinte de Martinopole ou de Châteauneuf sits at the heart of it all, with 18 of the town’s classé monuments within 400 m. Only 7 of the 41 towns nearest its size have more historic monuments. Of the whole list, 64% are houses and homes. The rest is about typical: 7.7% of its homes were built before 1919, close to the 7.4% in the median compared French town.