The Loire is the department of Forez and Jarez, a region of plateaus and mountains between the Massif Central and the Rhône Valley, of which Saint-Étienne—the former capital of the silk ribbon and firearms industries—is the main town. This industrial department, long associated with mining and steel, possesses a little-known yet truly remarkable heritage of castles, a legacy of the Counts of Forez and the Lords of Jarez who ruled these lands for centuries.
Charlieu, a former Benedictine abbey whose Romanesque narthex is one of the finest in France; Ambierle with its fortified church and the Alice Taverne Museum; La Bâtie-d’Urfé — the first Mannerist-style castle in France —; Château-d’Urfé, where Honoré d’Urfé wrote *L’Astrée*, the first modern French novel… The Loire boasts a number of castle gems that visitors discover to their great amazement.
The Loire Gorges, between Pinay and Grangent, and the Côtes du Forez vineyards offer remarkable natural landscapes in which the medieval castles of the Forez — Rochetaillée, Saint-Victor-sur-Rhins, Couzan — stand with a natural authority.