Category: Indre et Loire

Château de Tours

 

Visuel Château de Tours

History of the castle

From TOURS – Château de Tours – official website

On the remains of wooden buildings, themselves built on the remains of Gallo-Roman baths, the Chateau de Tour’s first stones are laid in the eleventh century by order of the Counts of Anjou, relying on some vestiges of the Roman wall that surrounded Caesarodunum, the Roman settlement here.

The location is strategic. Just in front of the only bridge that allows passage  north of the Loire, and bordering the city, the building is probably an entry point for men and goods while being a few steps from the cathedral.

The castle is mainly used as a residence, but things change in the thirteenth century. It must be said that France takes shape, and Philippe-Auguste includes Touraine in this great kingdom. The castle of Tours is then enlarged to become a real defensive fortress, perhaps to resist a possible English attack, or simply to impose a little more, in the face of the growing importance of Chateauneuf and St. Martin’s Basilica.

A drawbridge gives access to the castle with its large square tower of the eleventh century, and four towers including the tower of Guise which is a dungeon with a wall thirty meters high and three metres thick, surrounding not only the inhabited building but also the chapel and a large courtyard.

The estate extends further, with new homes, a barnyard, a stable. Kings go there, the future Louis XI is married there, but in the Renaissance the competition is tough against the new castles at the edge of the water. As the defensive role decreases and in the seventeenth century the Wilson Bridge is constructed, the role of the chateau changes, serving in turn as arsenal, begging depot, military barracks, and even stone quarry to build the river’s docks!

Today there remains only the Logis of Governors, which served for meetings of city officials, and the tower of medieval Guise leaning against the flag of Mars built in the eighteenth century.

 

Google Maps – Château de Tours

Château de Chenonceau

 

Château de Chenonceau’s history is significant for the actions of a string of women who have lived here. Its architectural and garden features stand as monuments to the lives of these great women. Beginning as is often the case as a fortress, this site evolved from the 11th century to become a residential building with a sense of luxury and particularly, femininity that we don’t always see in the Châteaux of the Loire Valley. It is the second most visited château in France after Versailles.

Read the History ..

Azay-le-Rideau

 

 

The current château of Azay-le-Rideau occupies the site of a former feudal castle. During the 12th century, the local seigneur Ridel (or Rideau) d’Azay, a knight in the service of Philip II Augustus, built a fortress here to protect the Tours to Chinon road where it crossed the river Indre.  This original medieval castle fell victim to the rivalry between Burgundian and Armagnac factions during the Hundred Years’ War. In 1418, the future Charles VII passed through Azay-le-Rideau as he fled from Burgundian occupied Paris to the loyal Armagnac stronghold of Bourges. Angered by the insults of the Burgundian troops occupying the town, the dauphin ordered his own army to storm the castle. The 350 soldiers inside were all executed and the castle itself burnt to the ground. For centuries, this fate was commemorated in the town’s name of Azay-le-Brûlé (literally Azay the Burnt), which remained in use until the 18th century.

 

 

 

The following information and images are from the official website of Château d’Azay-le-Rideau

The Berthelots and the 16th century

The castle remained in ruins until 1518, when the land was acquired by Gilles Berthelot, the Mayor of Tours and Treasurer-General of the King’s finances. Desiring a residence to reflect his wealth and status, Berthelot set about reconstructing the building in a way that would incorporate its medieval past alongside the latest architectural styles of the Italian renaissance. Although the château’s purpose was to be largely residential, defensive fortifications remained important symbols of prestige, and so Berthelot was keen to have them for his new castle. He justified his request to the King, Francis I, by an exaggerated description of the many ‘public thieves, foot[?] and other vagabonds, evildoers committing affray, disputes, thefts, larcenies, outrages, extortions and sundry other evils’ which threatened unfortified towns such as Azay-le-Rideau.

 

Gilles Berthelot had little time to enjoy his home. As with other financiers, his activities made him very rich, possibly at the expense of the crown. A general investigation ordered by Francis I revealed embezzlement.

 

Berthelot’s duties meant that he was frequently absent from the château, so the responsibility for supervising the building works fell to his wife, Philippa Lesbahy. These took time, since it was difficult to lay solid foundations in the damp ground of this island in the Indre, and the château had to be raised on stilts driven into the mud. Even once the foundations were laid, construction still progressed slowly, as much of the stone for the château came from the Saint-Aignan quarry, which was famous for its hard-wearing rock but was also around 100 km (62 mi) away, meaning that the heavy blocks had to be transported to Azay-le-Rideau by boat.

The château was still incomplete in 1527, when the execution of Jacques de Beaune, (the chief minister in charge of royal finances and cousin to Berthelot) forced Gilles to flee the country. Possibly fearing the exposure of his own financial misdemeanours, he went into exile first in Metz in Lorraine, and later in Cambrai, where he died just two years later. Disregarding the pleas of Berthelot’s wife Philippa, Francis I confiscated the unfinished château and, in 1535, gave it to Antoine Raffin, one of his knights-at-arms. Raffin undertook only minor renovations in the château, and so the building works remained incomplete, with only the south and west wings of the planned quadrilateral ever being built. Thus, the château preserved the distinctive, but accidental, L-shape which it retains to this day.

 

17th–18th centuries

In 1583, Raffin’s granddaughter Antoinette, a former lady-in-waiting to Margaret of Valois, took up residence in the château and, with the help of her husband Guy de Saint-Gelais, began modernising the décor. Azay-le-Rideau was then inherited by their son Arthur and his wife Françoise de Souvre, a future governess to Louis XIV, and it was during their ownership that the new château received its first royal visit: on June 27, 1619, while on his way from Paris to visit his mother, Marie de Medici, in Blois, Louis XIII broke his journey to spend the night in Azay-le-Rideau. Later in the century, his son Louis XIV would also be a guest in the same room.

 

The Biencourts and the 19th century

 

Biencourt dining room

The Raffins and their relations by marriage the Vassés retained ownership of the château until 1787, when it was sold for 300,000 livres to the Marquis Charles de Biencourt, field marshal of the king’s armies. The château was in poor condition, though, and from the 1820s, Biencourt undertook extensive alteration work. In 1824, he added a ‘Chinese room’ (destroyed in the 1860s) to the ground floor in the south wing, and in 1825 or 1826 decorated the library with carved wood panelling to match the drawing room on the opposite side.

It was his son, Armand-François-Marie, a guard of Louis XVI who participated in the defence of the Tuileries on 10 August 1792, who began the first extensive restoration of the château. This included restoring the old medallions and royal insignia on the staircase (which had been covered up during the Revolution), extending the courtyard façade and adding a new tower at the east corner. These developments destroyed the last vestiges of the old medieval fortress and meant that the château at last achieved a finished appearance. For these renovations, he employed the Swiss architect Pierre-Charles Dusillon, who was also working on the neighbouring château of Ussé.

During the Franco-Prussian War, the château was once again threatened with destruction. It served as the headquarters for the Prussian troops in the area, but when one night a chandelier fell from the ceiling onto the table where their leader, Prince Friedrich Karl of Prussia, was dining, he suspected an assassination attempt and ordered his soldiers to set fire to the building. Only his officers’ assurances that the lamp had dropped by accident persuaded him to stay his hand and thus saved the château from a second burning.

 

Original wood engraving by Pannemaker, 1877

 

Following the Prussian troops’ retreat, Azay-le-Rideau returned to the Biencourts. In this period, the château became well known for the collection of more than 300 historical portraits which the owners displayed there and which, unusually for a private collection, could be visited by the public. In 1899, financial difficulties forced the young widower Charles-Marie-Christian de Biencourt to sell the château, along with its furniture and 540 hectares of land, to the businessman Achille Arteau, a former lawyer from Tours who wanted to sell its contents for profit. As a result, the château was emptied and its artwork and furniture dispersed.

 

The Château in the 20th century

In 1905, the estate was purchased by the French state for 250,000 francs and became a listed Historical Monument. During the early years of the Second World War, 1939-1940, the château provided a home for the Education Ministry when they, like many other French ministries, withdrew from Paris. The château d’Azay-le-Rideau is now one of many national monuments under the protection of the Centre des monuments nationaux, and also forms part of the Loire valley UNESCO World Heritage Site.

 

A major restoration project (2014 – June 2017)

Restoration began in the park and focused on the renewal and maintenance of its arboreal heritage in the spirit of a 19th century landscaped park:  soil regeneration, restoration of alleys and bridges, upgrading of electrical equipment to standards and new lighting of the park, restoration of masonry works and implementation of an irrigation network supplied by river water.

 

Refurnishing of the Biencourt Salon

The Centre des Monuments Nationaux chose to restore the ground floor of the Château d’Azay-le-Rideau to all the luxury and comfort of its previous owners, the Biencourt family, who, between 1791 and 1899, paid utmost attention to the furniture and furnishings of the château. Restoration work has completed the reconstruction of the Château of Azay as it was the 19th century when it was admired by travellers and, in particular, by Prosper Mérimée and Honoré de Balzac.

 

 

The Biencourt Salon before refurnishing

 

 

The Biencourt Salon after refurnishing

 

Restoration of the roofing and façades

 

The restoration project, lasting a total of 34 months, also focused on the roof structures – the overall roofing, the upper parts of the masonry, sculptures and woodwork. Because of the amount installations and scaffolding, the restoration of façades and roofing were  scheduled at the same time. Installation of the scaffolding, part of which is in water, was a complex issue. An umbrella covering the entire site enabled the carpenters, roofers and stonemasons to work safely providing protection of the roof spaces and floors during the procedure.

 

Restoration of the court stairwell detail.

 

 

 

 

 

CLICK Refresh FOR SLIDES

Wikipedia

 

 

Château de Langeais

 

 

 

The following article from Wikipedia

The Château de Langeais is a medieval castle in Indre-et-Loire, France, built on a promontory created by the small valley of the Roumer River at the opening to the Loire Valley. Founded in 992 by Fulk Nerra, Count of Anjou, the castle was soon attacked by Odo I, Count of Blois. After the unsuccessful attack, the now-ruined stone keep was built; it is one of the earliest datable stone examples of a keep. Between 994 and 996 the castle was besieged unsuccessfully twice more. During the conflict between the counts of Anjou and Blois, the castle changed hands several times, and in 1038 Fulk captured the castle again.

After it was destroyed during the Hundred Years’ War, King Louis XI (1461–1483) rebuilt Château de Langeais into what today is one of the best known examples of late medieval architecture. It is especially noted for its monumental and highly decorated chimney pieces. Restored in the late 19th century, Château de Langeais came under the control of the Institut de France, who own the site today. It is listed as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture and is open to the public.

History

The ruins of the 10th-century keep

The 10th century saw the emergence of the castle, and Château de Langeais is generally thought to be the second earliest known; the earliest is Château de Doué-la-Fontaine built by the Count of Blois around 900. The counts of Anjou and Blois had bordering territories and the powerful lords were rivals; as a result the border area is home to some of the earliest known castles. When it was founded in 992 by Fulk Nerra, Count of Anjou, Château de Langeais was made from wood and took the form of a motte-and-bailey. A contemporary chronicler noted that it was built because “[Fulk] had no resting place between Bourgueil and Amboise along the Loire river”. It also had the advantage of being 24 km (15 mi) from Tours, a town under the control of Odo I, Count of Blois.

While the land belonged to Fulk, the area was under the control of Odo. When news of the fortification reached Odo he despatched a force to carry out its destruction. The attack was unsuccessful and Fulk reinforced the site, building the stone keep that stands in ruins today. To distract Odo from the construction work, which was complete by 994, Fulk carried out intermittent raids on his lands. It has been suggested that the keep’s shallow foundations and thin walls, 2 m (6 ft 7 in) at their thickest and on average 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in), demonstrate that it was built in haste.

Though he was unsuccessful in 992, Odo again tried to capture the castle two years later. This time he called on his Norman, Flemish, Aquitanian allies and the siege of Château de Langeais began in the spring of 994. Fulk led the garrison himself and sent a message to Hugh Capet, King of the Franks, asking for help; and, though Hugh was ill, he promised reinforcements. In the meantime Odo’s numbers grew as his allies continued to flock to him. The siege continued into the summer and Fulk began negotiating with Odo. Richer, a contemporary chronicler favourable to Odo, asserted that Fulk agreed to surrender but later reneged, claiming the agreement was not binding, though it is uncertain whether this was the case. However, the Capetian forces arrived before Fulk was forced to surrender. Faced with the king’s army, Odo agreed to leave Fulk in peace.

After the siege ended and Odo retreated, Fulk had to deal with hostilities along the western frontier of his lands. Despite Odo’s agreement with Hugh, the Count of Blois exploited Fulk’s divided attention to install a force at Château de Châteaudun from which he could move to capture Langeais should the opportunity arise. Odo besieged Château de Langeais in 995. The siege continued into the next year, but in March 996 Odo fell ill and died. With their leader dead, the besieging force left Langeais. With his most troublesome enemy dead, Fulk captured Tours which had previously been held by the Count of Blois. After Robert, King of the Franks took control of Tours, Fulk turned to the castles of Langeais, Montsoreau, Montrésor, and Montbazon to defend the Loire Valley.

Hostilities between the counts of Anjou and Blois were renewed in 1016. During the course of the conflict, Fulk lost control of three castles: Passavant was destroyed and Montbazon and Langeais were probably captured. By 1032 Château de Langeais was back under Fulk’s control, however it was again taken by the forces of Odo II, Count of Blois. Odo II died in battle in 1037 and was succeeded by his son, Theobald; on receiving the news of his rival’s demise, Fulk set about recapturing Château de Langeais. The siege began in the winter of 1037 and in the spring of the following year, with no relief forthcoming, the garrison surrendered. Fulk set his sights on further territorial gains and successfully captured Château de Chinon 22 km (14 mi) away.

 

Under the Plantagenet kings, the château was fortified and expanded by Richard I of England (King Richard the Lionheart). However, King Philippe II of France recaptured the château in 1206. Eventually though, during the Hundred Years’ War, the English destroyed it. The château was rebuilt about 1465 during the reign of King Louis XI. The great hall of the château was the scene of the marriage of Anne of Brittany to King Charles VIII on December 6, 1491 that made the permanent union of Brittany and France.

In 1886, Jacques Siegfried bought Château Langeais and began a restoration program. He installed an outstanding collection of tapestries and furnishings and bequeathed the château to the Institut de France which still owns it today. The château is open to the public. It is listed as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.

Layout

The north-east face of the 10th-century keep

According to contemporaneous chronicler Richer, the castle built by Foulques Nerra in the 990s consisted of a tower and a surrounding enclosure. The 10th-century keep still stands, albeit in a ruinous state. It is the earliest example of Romanesque architecture in the region. It is uncertain where the stone used in construction was quarried. A detailed study has been done on the cost of construction of Langeais tower. The stone tower is 16 metres (52 ft) high, 17.5m wide, and 10m long with walls averaging 1.5m. The walls contain 1,200 cubic metres (42,000 cu ft) of stone and have a total surface (both inside and out) of 1,600 square metres (17,000 sq ft). The tower is estimated to have taken 83,000 average working days to complete, most of which was unskilled labor. The wall enclosing the keep stretched for some 250 m (820 ft). The interior rooms are richly decorated.

 

 

 

 

CLICK Refresh FOR SLIDES

Wikipedia

Official website

 

 

Indre et Loire 37

 

 

 

 

 

 

Indre-et-Loire is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from the former province of Touraine.

Tours, the departmental prefecture, was a centre of learning in the early Middle Ages, having been a key focus of Christian evangelisation since St Martin became its first bishop in c. 375. From the mid-15th century, the royal court repaired to the Loire Valley, with Tours as its capital, and at the confluence/crossing-point of the Loire and Cher rivers it became a centre of silk manufacturing and other luxury goods, including the wine-trade, creating a prosperous bourgeoisie.

After the creation of the department it remained politically conservative, as Honoré de Balzac recorded in several of his novels. Conservative Tours refused to welcome the railways which instead were obliged to route their lines by way of Saint-Pierre-des-Corps on the city’s eastern edge. The moderate temper of the department’s politics remained apparent after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870: sentiments remained predominantly pro-royalist during the early years of the Third Republic.

For most of the nineteenth century, Indre-et-Loire was a rural department, but pockets of heavy-duty industrialisation began to appear towards the century’s end, accompanied by left-wing politics. 1920 saw the birth of the French Communist Party at the Congress of Tours. By 1920 Saint-Pierre-des-Corps had become a major railway hub and a centre of railway workshops: it had also acquired a reputation as a bastion of working class solidarity.

 

 

See also

 

 

Map of Indre et Loire

Tours – Musée des Beaux-Arts

 

 

 

The Musée des beaux-arts de Tours is located in the bishop’s former palace near the Cathedral St. Gatien, where it has been since 1910.It displays rich and varied collections, including that of painting which is one of the first in France both in quality and the diversity of the works presented.

The Museum of Fine Arts Tours is housed in a historic building of exceptional quality. The site is of paramount importance for the history of ancient Caesarodunum; the museum houses in its underground the most beautiful lapidary inscription to the glory of the Turons. The first bishops had chosen to settle near the cathedral, in a palace along the wall of the fourth century.

Another vestige of this period, a chapel leaning against the archbishops palace dating from the fourth century. and rebuilt in 591 by order of Gregory of Tours. This building was transformed in the twelfth century and partly destroyed in the seventeenth century during the development of the new Archbishop’s palace of Bishop Bertrand d’Eschaux .. In the twelfth century was built the so-called wing of the Synod. Constantly transformed over the centuries, this huge hall where gathered twice (1468 and 1484) the States General of the Kingdom of France is one of the most evocative historical sites in the history of Touraine.

Monsignor Rosset de Fleury completed the project thanks to the construction of the pediment and attic palace and the layout of the terraces whose curve follows the layout of the Roman amphitheater. Finally, Monsignor de Conzié had the imposing portal and the semicircle of the main courtyard erected in 1775, instead of the old stables. He transformed the old synod hall into an archiepiscopal chapel and commissioned an antique colonnade for this purpose.

After 1789, the Palace of the Archbishops became a theater, Central School, library then by departmental order of October 6, 1792 and the passionate energy of the founder of the school of drawing of the City, Charles-Antoine Rougeot and his son-in-law, Jean -Jacques Raverot, a deposit of works seized at the Revolution.

The museum was officially created in 1801, in 1802 and throughout the nineteenth century, buildings were again assigned to the archbishop. It was not until 1910 that the collections returned to the former archiepiscopal palace.

 

 

 

Panoramic view of Tours by Demachy

 

Collections (Wikipedia)

The museum has a large and fairly homogeneous collection of paintings, which includes several masterpieces such as two paintings by Andrea Mantegna, from the predella of the San Zeno Altarpiece:

 

 

 

 

 

CLICK Refresh FOR SLIDES

Musée des Beaux-Arts official website

Google Maps – Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours

Château de Chenonceau

The Château de Chenonceau is a château spanning the River Cher, near the small village of Chenonceaux in the Indre-et-Loire département of the Loire Valley in France. It is one of the best-known châteaux of the Loire valley. The estate of Chenonceau is first mentioned in writing in the 11th century. In the 13th century, the fief of Chenonceau belonged to the Marques family. The original château was torched in 1412 to punish owner Jean Marques for an act of sedition. He rebuilt a château and fortified mill on the site in the 1430s however Jean Marques’s indebted heir Pierre Marques found it necessary to sell.  Thomas Bohier, Chamberlain to King Charles VIII of France, purchased the castle from Pierre Marques in 1513 (leading to 2013 being considered the 500th anniversary of the castle: MDXIII–MMXIII.) Bohier demolished the castle, though its 15th-century keep was left standing, and built an entirely new residence between 1515 and 1521. The work was overseen by his wife Katherine Briçonnet,who delighted in hosting French nobility, including King Francis I on two occasions.  The  château built on the foundations of an old mill was later extended to span the river. The bridge over the river was built (1556-1559) to designs by the French Renaissance architect Philibert de l’Orme, and the gallery on the bridge, built from 1570–1576 to designs by Jean Bullant.

 

Plan of the main block, engraved by Du Cerceau (1579)

 

 The women of Chenonceau

 

 

 

Diane de Poitiers 1499 – 1566

 

 

In 1535 the château was seized from Bohier’s son by King Francis I of France for unpaid debts to the Crown; after Francis’ death in 1547, Henry II offered the château as a gift to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers, who became fervently attached to the château along the river. In 1555 she commissioned Philibert de l’Orme to build the arched bridge joining the château to its opposite bank. Diane then oversaw the planting of extensive flower and vegetable gardens along with a variety of fruit trees. Set along the banks of the river, but buttressed from flooding by stone terraces, the exquisite gardens were laid out in four triangles.

Diane de Poitiers was the unquestioned mistress of the castle, but ownership remained with the crown until 1555, when years of delicate legal maneuvers finally yielded possession to her.

 

 

Catherine de’ Medici 1519 – 1589

 

 

After King Henry II died in 1559, his strong-willed widow and regent Catherine de’ Medici forced Diane to exchange it for the Château Chaumont. Queen Catherine then made Chenonceau her own favorite residence, adding a new series of gardens.

As Regent of France, Catherine spent a fortune on the château and on spectacular nighttime parties. In 1560, the first ever fireworks display seen in France took place during the celebrations marking the ascension to the throne of Catherine’s son Francis II. The grand gallery was completed in 1577 to close in the existing bridge and Catherine also added rooms between the chapel and the library on the east side of the corps de logis, as well as a service wing on the west side of the entry courtyard.

Catherine considered an even greater expansion of the château, shown in an engraving published by Jacques Androuet du Cerceau in the second (1579) volume of his book Les plus excellents bastiments de France. If this project had been executed, the current château would have been only a small portion of an enormous manor laid out “like pincers around the existing buildings.”

 

Project for the expansion of the château from Du Cerceau’s 1579 book

 

 

Louise of Lorraine 1553 – 1601

On Catherine’s death in 1589 the château went to her daughter-in-law, Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont, wife of King Henry III. It was at Chenonceau that Louise was told of her husband’s assassination in 1589. She withdrew to the château and went into mourning, in white, as required by court protocol. Forgotten by all, she had trouble maintaining her queen-dowager life style. She devoted her time to reading, charity work and prayer.

 

Gabrielle d’Estrées

 

Gabrielle d’Estrées, Duchesse de Beaufort

Henri IV obtained Chenonceau for his mistress Gabrielle d’Estrées by paying the debts of Catherine de’ Medici, which had been inherited by Louise and were threatening to ruin her. In return Louise left the château to her niece Françoise de Lorraine, at that time six years old and betrothed to the four-year-old César de Bourbon, duc de Vendôme, the natural son of Gabrielle d’Estrées and Henri IV. The château belonged to the Duc de Vendôme and his descendants for more than a hundred years. The Bourbons had little interest in the château, except for hunting. In 1650, Louis XIV was the last king of the ancien régime to visit.

The Château de Chenonceau was bought by the Duke of Bourbon in 1720. Little by little, he sold off all of the castle’s contents. Many of the fine statues ended up at Versailles.

 

 

Louise Dupin 1706 – 1799

 

 

In the 18th century Louise Dupin gave renewed splendor to the château. She started an outstanding salon with the elite among writers, poets, scientists and philosophers, such as Montesquieu, Voltaire or Rousseau. A wise protector of Chenonceau, she managed to save the château during the Revolution.

 

 

Marguerite Pelouze 1836 – 1902

 

 

In the 19th century, Marguerite Pelouze, descended from the industrial bourgeoisie, decided in 1864 to transform the monument and its gardens according to her taste for luxury. She spent a fortune on restoring the estate to the time period of Diane de Poitiers. Chenonceau was sold once, and then again in 1913.

 

 

Simonne Menier 1881 – 1972

During the First World War far from the trenches Chenonceau also knew the troubles of wartime. Simone Menier transformed and equipped the gallery into a hospital at her family’s own expense and  over 2 000 wounded were cared for up to 1918. Her  bravery led her to carry out numerous actions for the resistance during the Second World War (1939-1945).

 

 

 

 

 

CLICK Refresh FOR SLIDES

Official guide

 

 

Ussé

 

Around the year 1,000 AD the region of Touraine was prey to incessant fighting between its rivals. Gelduin I decided to build a stronghold of wood and stone, perched like an eagle’s nest on the side of the hill and backing on to the fantastic forest of Chinon. The site was strategic and as time went by this fortress became the foundation for the construction of a new castle. The first alterations, making the castle less of a fortress and more of a beautiful and spiritual place, were carried out by Jean V de Bueil. He was a supporter of Joan of Arc, the “Scourge of the English”, and his son married one the daughters of Charles VII and Agnès Sorel. This was the beginning of the château we see today, with the prison tower and the first chapel at its centre. In the 15th century, entry to the château was still made across a drawbridge spanning a moat.

A château destined for gracious living

In the 16th century, Charles D’Espinay and Lucrèce de Pons oversaw the construction of the central part of the castle, the first part of the right wing and the chapel. But it is in the 17th century that the castle was transformed into a place of residence with the addition of a charming pavilion built to celebrate the marriage of Maréchal de Vauban’s daughter and the Marquis de Valentinay who was the owner’s son and King Louis XIV’s Controller-General of Finances. It was thanks to the King’s patronage that the château was honoured and became a marquisate. The French formal garden, designed by le Nôtre and terraced by Vauban added the finishing touches and finally transformed the château into an enchanting residence.

 

 

 

 

CLICK Refresh FOR SLIDES

Google Maps – Château d’Ussé

Clos Lucé

 

 

The Château du Clos Lucé (or simply Clos Lucé) is a large château in the city of Amboise, France. The place is famous for being the official residence of Leonardo da Vinci between 1516 and 1519, when Leonardo died. Clos Lucé is located at 500 metres from the royal Château d’Amboise, to which it is connected by an underground passageway. Built by Hugues d’Amboise in the middle of the fifteenth century, it was acquired in 1490 by Charles VIII of France for his wife, Anne de Bretagne. Later, it was used by Francis I, as well as his sister Marguerite de Navarre, who began writing her book entitled L’Heptaméron while living there. In 1516, King Francis I of France invited Leonardo da Vinci to Amboise and provided him with the Clos Lucé, then called Château de Cloux, as a place to stay and work. Leonardo arrived with three of his paintings, namely the Mona Lisa, Sainte Anne, and Saint Jean Baptiste. Leonardo lived at the Clos Lucé for the last three years of his life, and died there on 2 May 1519.

 

 

Timeline of history at the Château of Clos Lucé  (from the official website)

 

1471

King Louis XI gives the domain of Cloux, known today as the Château du Clos Lucé, to a former ennobled kitchen boy named Etienne le Loup. He built the Château du Clos Lucé with bricks and freestone, as well as one of France’s most beautiful dovecotes, untouched until today. Inside you’ll hear the flapping of the thousand birds it used to shelter.

1490

The Clos Lucé becomes the summerhouse of the kings of France. Charles VIII asks for a chapel to be built for his young wife, Queen Anne de Bretagne, who comes to mourn the loss of her young children. The chapel is decorated with four frescos, including the Annunciation, which was painted by Leonardo’s pupils. The Virgin of light, « Virgo Lucis », above the door, may have given the site its current name: Château du Clos Lucé.

1516-1519 :

King Francis I and Louise de Savoie invite Leonardo da Vinci to Amboise.

King Francis I, passionate about Leonardo da Vinci’s talent, names him “ Premier Painter and Engineer and Architect of the King” and offers him the enjoyment of the Château of Clos Lucé, located only a few meters away from the Château d’Amboise. The national archives in Paris have a certificate for payment mentioning the pension from Francis I to Leonardo da Vinci « To Master Lyenard de Vince, Italian painter, the sum of 2000 ecussoleil, for his pension of two years ».

Leonardo spends the last three years of his life at the Château of Clos Lucé and works on several projects for the king of France, surrounded by his students. He welcomes prestigious visitors like the Cardinal of Aragon, great men of the kingdom, Italian ambassadors and fellow artists present in the king’s court, like Domenico da Cortona, known as the Boccador and Chambord’s future architect. An underground passage between the two castles allowsboth men to meet frequently. Today, only the first meters are still visible. After a fascinating relationship between Leonardo da Vinci and three French Kings(Charles VIII, Louis XII and Francis I), the Italian Master passes away on May the 2 nd 1519 in his room at the Château du Clos Lucé.

 

 

 

 

 

 

CLICK Refresh FOR SLIDES

Official website

Google Maps – Château du Clos Lucé