Travel Guide Gambais

At the edge of the Rambouillet forest, the municipality of Gambais consists of a village surrounding several hamlets. It now has 2 498 inhabitants. The town, located in the historic forest of Yveline, was populated by the Celts Carnutes and was inhabited by the Romans. The region was christianised between the th and the th century, especially thanks to Saint Martin and Saint Lubin. By the donation that Pépin le Brief made to Saint-Denis Abbey in 768, from the entire district of the forest of Yveline, the locality came under the tutelage of the monks. The surrounding forest continued to attract royal hunts, and in the th century, by royal donation, Gambais became property of the counts of Montfort. The story reports that Count Amaury de Montfort offered the St. Lawrence priory of Montfort the right shoulder of all deer and backpackers killed in the hunts from Saint-Léger, Montfort and Gambais. Several castles have marked the history of the commune: first the Trompette castle, motte castrale protecting the region of the Norman normandes, where Duguesclin stayed several months, then the fiefdoms of the Châtellenie de Gambais installed in Olivet, Le Boulay and Raconis, and finally the Neuville Castle. Gambais also had two water mills, a windmill, and a salt attic.