The Dogs of Loches

 

 Spot the dogs.

If you visit the Logis Royal, the royal hunting lodge and residence of mistresses and queens, on the Royal Citadel in Loches one of the first things you will see is a series of carved stone hounds sitting on the balustrade of the staircase up to the southern entrance. All the locals know and love them. 

But not everyone is aware that whilst the royal hunting lodge was built in the 15th century (in two phases), the dogs and their staircase were only added in the early 20th century, when the building ceased being the government offices, and opened to the public as a heritage tourist attraction. And what even more people fail to notice is that there are other dogs ornamenting the building, which, so far as I know, are original to the second building phase in the late 15th century.

 

15th century dormer windows.

This hunting lodge was a medieval Valois stronghold, refuge and sanctuary. The Valois royals were famously besotted with their dogs and the contemporary records make it clear that these animals were pets and companions, to be cossetted, fussed over, spoiled and loved.

 

Anne of Brittany, the Queen for whom the extension created in the second phase of the building was made, was accompanied everywhere by a pair of whippets. Louis XI had a great white lurcher (Fr. lévrier) that was with him until the very end. Someone buried a medium sized dog hard up against the chapel wall in the 15th century, and the position tells us that it must have been an animal that a high status person cared about a lot.

 

The dogs sit high and proud looking out over the valley towards the forest.

Whilst there were no breeds as such at this time, there was a hierachy of dog types. At the top were the 'running dogs', what we would call greyhounds, whippets, lurchers, wolf hounds and the like, used as both pets and hunting dogs. It is almost always this type of dog that gets mentioned as beloved in the contemporary literature. Then there were the 'hunting dogs', which were big hounds and mastiffs, used in packs to bring down large prey. There were 'guard dogs'  and 'shepherd dogs' which protected property and controlled livestock. And there were small dogs suitable for living indoors and spending much of their time in their owners arms. Portraits of the great and the good feature cute little dogs surprisingly often. There must also have been small hunting dogs like terriers for catching vermin.