Sightseeing & heritage

Cloître de la Psalette

7 rue de la Psalette, 37000 Tours

The cloister of Tours Cathedral, dating from the 15th and 16th centuries. Highlights: garden, three galleries, spiral staircase. Balzac set one of his characters from *La Comédie Humaine* here (‘The Priest of Tours’). The architecture is partly in the Flamboyant and Renaissance styles. Temporary exhibitions, concerts and performances.

Adjoining the north side of Saint-Gatien Cathedral, the Psalette cloister served as the setting for Balzac’s *The Curé of Tours*. A blend of Gothic and Renaissance styles, this building served as a workplace for the canons. It still features a beautiful spiral staircase leading to the Scriptorium (1520). Visitors can also explore the ‘library’, a beautiful vaulted room completed in 1460, and the north gallery (1508), where a small oratory houses fragments of a fresco.

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Listing provided by Tours Val de Loire Tourisme (updated by the source on 06/08/2026).

Tourist office data: DATAtourisme, Licence Ouverte (French open licence), updated 28 October 2026.