 At the foot of the castle, between the promontory and the Loir, a further enclosure protected the priory of Saint Martin (Saint-Gildéric), founded about 1040 by the first lord of Lavardin in an external bailey.During the early Middle Ages, the castle promontory was occupied by a cemetery, of which several ditches cut in the rock have been found.Of the first enclosure there remains a large gatehouse or "châtelet" (12th, 14th and 15th centuries), with machicolations and embrasures for cannons (about 1400).