The Chateau de Chambord
The flamboyant King Francis I loved to put on a show and at Chambord, his imagination ran wild. A grand castle in true Renaissance style, built to shout to the world that this was the home of the greatest King that ever lived.
426 rooms (60 of which are open to the public), 83 staircases including a double helix staircase said to have been at the very least inspired by (if not designed by) Leonardo da Vinci, 282 fireplaces (never enough to keep it warm) tall towers and turrets.
Straight out of a fairy tale, Chambord is an absolute dream of a castle bought to life. It’s been called an “example of architectural megalomania”, Victor Hugo said it was “admirably bizarre”. It was outrageously expensive to build with up to 2000 workmen employed on its creation. In fact the King ran out of money before it was completed despite raiding the treasuries of churches and grabbing silver from his subjects. When he was captured in battle in Italy in 1525, just 6 years after the first stone of Chambord was laid, he gave up his sons to take his place and then couldn’t ransom them due to lack of funds. Work went on in in fits and starts but by the time he died aged 52 in 1547, the King had only spent 50 days t there in total.
Today it is a UNESCO world heritage site and much loved monument to the Renaissance in the Loire Valley, an amazing example of the style of the day. The castle grounds cover around 13,500 hectares, roughly the size of inner Paris, and is the largest enclosed park in Europe, with boundary walls covering 20 miles. You can discover it on foot, by bike, horse, 4x4 or horse and carriage and there are 20km of trails to explore in the forest.
The double helix staircase mirrors the same structure as DNA! Although no one can say for sure that the staircase is the work of Leonardo da Vinci, he left behind drawings of this style of staircase and even one for a quadruple staircase
Francis 1494-1547