Chambord: The
first Renaissance castle of France
by McKenna Darby
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| Chambord from the East corner. Francis I turret is at far left. |
Paris
is a historical novelist’s dream. If you’re a novelist interested in French
royalty during the Middle Ages or the Renaissance, however, you can’t follow
their trail far without making a trip east to the Loire Valley. France’s kings
retreated to the region during the Hundred Years’ War, when England’s control
of western France made Paris vulnerable to attack. They stayed long after the
war ended, though, and it’s easy to understand why.
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| The foot print of Chambord. Note the central keep with four turrets, typical of medieval castles, and the low curtain wall that outlines the courtyard. The two turrets at the far right, top and bottom, were never completed, rising only as high as the curtain wall. The turret at top left housed Francis' apartments, which were accessed by the external spiral staircase shown below. |
Few
places on earth can rival the abundant forests, scenic rivers and fertile
farmlands of the Loire Valley. The numerous castles left behind by its royal
visitors – nearly 70 scattered across just three provinces – only add to the
region’s beauty. And so it was that, on a recent trip to Paris, I spent a chunk
of my weekend on a tour bus bound for Loir-et-Cher and the largest of the Loire
Valley’s castles: Chateau de Chambord, which features 440 rooms,
282 fireplaces, and 84 staircases.
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| This bust of Francis I in armor is believed to be the most accurate portrayal of the king in his prime. |
Chambord
drew me to the Loire Valley because it was built by Francis I, who was the
father-in-law of Catherine de Medici, the Italian noble who helped rule France
for more than 40 years, first as queen and then as regent to her three sons.
Although most of the court loathed Catherine – ostensibly because she was the
daughter of Italian merchants (horrors!) but primarily because she wasn’t
French – the king adored his intelligent, witty, and cultured Italian
daughter-in-law.
Catherine
shared Francis’ dream – never achieved – of uniting France and Italy under
French rule, as well as her father-in-law’s love of art, books, and
architecture. No one knows for certain how long it took for Catherine to
recognize their shared interests after she arrived in France to marry the
king’s second son, Henri, when they were both just 14. I like to imagine,
however, that the discovery occurred the first time Catherine saw Chambord.
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| View f the courtyard and the staircase that serves the North turret, which housed the personal apartments of Francis I. |
Francis
built Chambord in celebration of his love of Italian Renaissance art and
architecture. At the king’s invitation, Leonardo da Vinci visited the site and
consulted on the castle’s design. Several historians actually attribute the
castle’s distinctive double-helix staircase – two sets of stairs that twine
around one another without ever meeting – to the great Italian artist (although
the idea is hotly contested and may never be proved).
Built
as France entered the Renaissance, Chambord’s distinctive architecture blends
traditional French medieval forms with classical Italian Renaissance
structures. The central keep, for example, is consistent with medieval design,
featuring turrets at each corner, an extensive curtain wall and a moat. Inside,
however, the building is pure Renaissance.
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| The "da Vinci" double-helix staircase. Note the wooden beams of the ceiling in one of the four apartments that surround the staircase in a Green cross design on each floor. |
The
“da Vinci” staircase, located at the keep’s center, is built around a column of
open air topped by an elaborate spire. The spire, which is pierced by intricate
leaded windows, floods all four floors with light. On each of its four stories,
the stairs open onto four Greek-cross landings with arched ceilings. Each
landing is a complete apartment, a break with the medieval tradition of
arranging bedrooms along corridors. Additional suites are housed in each of the
turrets, for a total of eight apartments on each floor.
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| Looking up, inside the da Vinci staircase, toward the decorative tower atop the attic. |
Chambord’s
Italian influence is most evident from the outside, however. Arched pillars,
superimposed across the front of the façade, give it a beautiful symmetry that
is purely decorative. Double-banded friezes separate the three floors, with
each story shorter than the one below it. The towers, steeples, chimneys and
lanterns that decorate the keep’s attic, when viewed from the chateau’s front
lawn, form the outline of a fantastical town; Francis reportedly commissioned
the design to replicate the skyline of Constantinople. (I wasn’t able to snap
that picture myself, but you can get a sense of it here,
especially in the reflection.)
Atop
the third floor, a terrace surrounds this entire “city.” At every turn,
decorative black slate tiles applied to the white stone give the castle a
flamboyant Italian harlequin design. It is easy to imagine the servants, sent
to Chambord in advance of the court’s arrival, watching for the approaching
royal procession from these ramparts, or craning for a glimpse of the king’s hunting
party as it thundered through the nearby forests.
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| The decorative tower that tops the da Vinci staircase. Note the black slate used to give the building an Italian harlequin design. |
Because
Chambord was rarely occupied (Francis reportedly spent fewer than seventeen
weeks there during his lifetime), the castle was never furnished. With no
village nearby, the 2,000-member court had to bring everything it needed –
furniture, bedding, tapestries, cooking supplies, food – each time it visited.
Today, with the exception of a few apartments outfitted with relatively modern
furnishings, visitors to Chambord experience the chateau just as it was between
Francis’ visits: utterly empty.
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The carved Fs stand for Francis. The salamanders were the personal symbol of Francis I, chosen for their mythological ability to regenerate through fire. |
Even
so, evidence of Francis is everywhere, from the FRF initials formed in black
slate to the salamanders carved into fireplaces, doors and coffered ceilings.
As king, Francis took the salamander as his personal symbol, reflecting the
ancient belief that the salamander, like the phoenix, could regenerate through
fire – a worthy aspiration for a king who spent most of his reign at war with
Spain.
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| A closer view of some of the black slate decorations, plus an engraved shell design, on the fantastical roofline of Chambord. |
After
Francis’ death, his son Henri and daughter-in-law Catherine continued to visit
Chambord with their ten children until Henri’s death in a tragic jousting
accident. Many years later, when their youngest son’s assassination during the
Wars of Religion ended the Valois dynasty, the castle was abandoned. It was
rescued by Louis XIV, who used it regularly from 1668 to 1675. Moliere’s famous
play “Bourgeois Gentilhomme” had its premiere at Chambord during Louis’ reign.
After
the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte gave the chateau to a member of his
entourage. In 1939, shortly before the outbreak of World War II, the art
collections of the Louvre and Compiègne museums (including the Mona Lisa and
the Venus de Milo) were hidden at Chambord, where they remained safe until the
war ended. In 1991, the chateau became the inspiration for the Beast’s castle
in the Walt Disney animated film “Beauty and the Beast.”
Now
owned by the French government and open to the public, the chateau receives
about 700,000 visitors annually.
McKenna Darby
writes romantic historical novels set during the French Renaissance and the
American Civil War. Visit her at http://mckennadarby.com
