Le Carroi, musée d'arts et d'histoire

Le Carroi, musée d'arts et d'histoire in Chinon, Centre-Val de Loire, is a wide-ranging art and history museum housed in a medieval building in the heart of one of France's great Loire Valley towns. Its collections include exceptional medieval sculpture connected to the Plantagenet heritage of Chinon, a 12th-century Hispano-Moorish silk embroidered with cheetahs, a famous portrait of Rabelais by Delacroix, archaeological finds from prehistoric to Merovingian times, decorative arts including ceramics, and natural history exhibits. The museum reflects Chinon's rich layers of history as a royal seat and intellectual centre.