Tours hides 1,800 years under its slate roofs: a Gallo-Roman amphitheatre swallowed by houses, the tomb that made Saint Martin medieval Europe's patron, and the manor where Louis XI died in 1483. This route follows the layers in order.
The 2nd-century arena (156m across, seating 34,000) survives as curved house fronts around Place Grégoire-de-Tours. Roman wall courses are visible in Rue des Ursulines and behind the cathedral apse. Free, permanently open, self-guided.
Victor Laloux's 1890–1924 neo-Byzantine basilica shelters the tomb of Saint Martin, rediscovered in 1860 after revolutionaries razed the medieval collegiate church. The crypt still draws pilgrims each 11 November. Open daily 8:00–19:00.
Two towers are all that remain of the vast Romanesque collegiate church demolished in 1802: the Tour Charlemagne, over Luitgarde's tomb, and the 12th-century Tour de l'Horloge. The museum in the Chapelle Saint-Jean maps the lost basilica.
The riverside keep mixes 11th-century Gallo-Roman foundations, the 13th-century Tour de Guise — where the young Duke of Guise escaped down a rope in 1591 — and 15th-century royal lodgings now used for photography exhibitions.
The archbishops' palace, built 1716–1741 over the Roman wall, holds Mantegna panels looted from Italy in 1799 and the Charles X ceremonial rooms. Open 9:00–12:45 and 14:00–18:00, closed Tuesdays.
Laloux, architect of Paris's Gare d'Orsay, built Tours' 1898 station with its glass hall and four stone statues of destination cities, then the 1904 city hall on Rue Nationale. Both survived the June 1940 fires that gutted the centre.
Housed in the dormitory of the 11th-century Abbaye Saint-Julien, this guild museum shows masterpieces journeymen made to earn their title: locks, cathedral models, sabots. Roughly 1,000 objects covering 25 trades. Closed Tuesdays off-season.
The 434m stone bridge of 1765–1778 lost four arches to collapse in April 1978 and was rebuilt identically. From its deck you see the flat 1950s facades of Rue Nationale, raised after German and Allied bombing destroyed the old quarter.
One brick wing survives of Louis XI's favourite residence, where the king died on 30 August 1483 surrounded by his caged birds and Saint Francis of Paola. Bus line 3 from Jean-Jaurès, then a 10-minute walk. Open Wednesday to Sunday.
The poet Pierre de Ronsard was prior here from 1565 until his death in 1585; his grave lies in the roofless priory church, and his lodging house still stands among rose beds replanted to 16th-century varieties. A 5-minute walk from Plessis.
Saint Martin founded this monastery in 372 in the cliff caves above the Loire. You can visit the rock-cut cells, the 13th-century Tour des Cloches and the Porte de la Crosse gatehouse. Bus line 40 or a 4km riverside cycle from the centre.
At number 39, a plaque marks the workshop 'À la Pucelle Armée', where Joan of Arc's white armour was forged in spring 1429 before she rode to Orléans. The street's timber-framed houses run east from the cathedral through the old artisan quarter.