Prefecture of Loir-et-CherGovernment

The Prefecture of Loir-et-Cher is the decentralized administrative authority representing the French state in the department of Loir-et-Cher, headquartered in Blois. Headed by the state-appointed prefect, its mandate includes maintaining public order, ensuring civil security, coordinating state policies, and overseeing local administrative legality. Established under Napoleon Bonaparte's administrative reforms of 1800 following the creation of the department in 1790, its historic headquarters incorporates parts of the former seventeenth-century Convent of the Visitation.