Chambord castle is much more than an obligatory stop on the route of the Loire castles. It is an architectural marvel. Crowned by six immense towers, its 440 rooms, 365 chimneys and 84 staircases are articulated together in such a way that what could be a pharaonic nonsense ends up becoming a harmonious whole.
It has the strength of a castle, but also the elegance of a palace. It is said that up to 1,800 workers were involved in its construction, and that Leonardo da Vinci himself – a never proven assumption – was involved in the design of his prodigious helical staircase. Also that the immense park that surrounds it was only landscaped in a minimal part so that Chambord could fulfill the function for which it was created: that of refuge during the hunting days of its royal visitors.
The castle was built to fulfill the dream of a king: Francis I. A great fan of hunting and lover of the arts, especially architecture, the monarch knew the Loire Valley, where he had grown up, perfectly. Knowing the treasures of his forests, he decided to give free rein to his imagination and create in that privileged environment what is possibly the most fabulous hunting lodge in the world.
It was, without a doubt, the most expensive of the royal whims, but not the only one. Francis I was born in Cognac in 1494. He would essentially be a warrior king who would go down in history for his bitter rivalry with Emperor Charles V. But, apart from his military status, he also revealed himself as a cultured and refined man, who is recognized as the soul of the French Renaissance. Consequently, on his initiative, castles such as those of Amboise or Blois, his favorite residences, were born or remodeled.
From the moment he ascended the throne in 1515, Francis I surrounded himself with a court of Italian artists whom he favored. Among them was Da Vinci, whom he installed in Clos Lucé, a mansion near the royal castle of Amboise where the genius spent his last years. It was precisely this closeness to the king that made it seem plausible that Leonardo was responsible for the very personal design of the Chambord helical staircase. However, it is not clear: the Italian genius died before the staircase began to be built.
What is beyond doubt is that the person responsible for the Chambord plans was another great Italian Renaissance artist, the architect Domenico da Cortona. He had already worked for Francis I in the works to reinforce the defenses of the castle of Tournai and resided, in the shadow of the sovereign, in his castle-palace in Blois.
Apparently, Cortona presented Francis I with a wooden model (which was preserved until the 17th century). It comprised the central body of the castle, flanked by its angular towers and topped by a lantern tower, around which the different terraces opened. The project was approved and was soon translated into stone.
The model, however, did not contemplate the famous double-section staircase, made up of two combined spirals embedded in a single hole, which allows you to go up and down at the same time without those who pass by coming across each other. Exquisitely decorated, its sculptural friezes constitute one of the best examples of its kind from the French Renaissance. Around the staircase, four rooms serve as distributors for the four sectors of the home.
However, Cortona’s work was not definitive. Like a living entity, Chambord grew at the pace of history, always according to the taste of its owners. A long journey that seemed to have been interrupted by the death of Francis I in 1547, despite the fact that his son and successor, Henry II, finished the works on the chapel shortly after.
Chambord did not regain its privileged status in royal favor until eighty years later, in 1639, at the hands of Louis XIII. The sovereign, a great fan of hunting, used to frequent the forests of Chambord and stay in the castle. But, determined to give it greater use, he gave it to his brother Gaston of Orleans, who was the saving hand that prevented his ruin.
The truth is that the gift was somewhat poisoned. The differences between both brothers had separated Gastón from the court on two occasions. Offering him a residence like Chambord was the most appropriate thing to ensure that the uncomfortable brother did not make more appearances in the daily court life than was essential.
Third son of Henry IV and Marie de’ Medici, as cultured and refined as he was ambitious and intriguing, Gaston of Orleans faced the cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin and, by extension, his brother Louis XIII and the regent, Anne of Austria. He was also involved in the events of the Fronde, a turbulent period during the minority of Louis XIV, and ended his days in Blois, in a golden semi-exile to which Mazarin sent him. However, between conspiracy and conspiracy he knew how to restore the structure of Chambord and give it back some of the splendor that he had known in its beginnings.
A splendor that Louis XIV granted him definitively. The Sun King decided to make Chambord one of his favorite leisure places. To do this, he decorated sumptuous rooms in the center of the building and turned it into a meeting point for the court. There they hunted, danced, held concerts or performed plays.
There, while Molière premiered some of his best works, such as The Imaginary Sick, Jean-Baptiste Lully presented his ballets and orchestrations. The king completed the works on the chapel, giving it the baroque shine that it lacked thanks to the masterful hand of Jules Hardouin Mansart, and redecorated an entire floor. If it lost some of its original austerity, the palace gained in sumptuousness and opulence.
In any case, those of the sovereigns were always short stays, like royal vacations, but they never gave the castle the status that, for example, Versailles enjoyed. In this sense, Chambord experienced its moment of glory throughout the 18th century, when Louis XV gave it to his father-in-law, Stanislaus Leszczynski, exiled monarch of Poland, with the purpose of it serving as his residence.
The pretender to the Polish throne settled with his family in Chambord, where he spent eight long years, turning the old hunting lodge into a small kingdom in exile. In order to turn the castle into a palatial mansion, with the luxury corresponding to his rank, he decorated the main rooms with objects and furniture from Versailles. He also organized numerous parties and court meetings, without ceasing to conspire to recover the lost throne.
Finally, becoming Duke of Lorraine after the War of the Austrian Succession, he abandoned Chambord, which in 1748 was occupied by Marshal Maurice of Saxony. In fact, if the French monarch gave Chambord to the German marshal it was as compensation for the services provided to France after the War of the Austrian Succession, and specifically for the victory of Fontenoy.
Its grateful new owner enjoyed Chambord for several years, during which he continued to make numerous improvements. Upon his death, possession was inherited by his nephew, the Count of Friesen, who resided in the castle for more than five years and who, in turn, was succeeded by the Marquis of Polignac.
But these were pre-revolutionary times and, anticipating the course of events, the marquis forgot the status of Chambord castle-palace and converted it into a pseudo-military fortress. Evidently, this placed him in the sights of the revolutionaries. These, after the outbreak of 1789, converted their rooms into an arsenal and barracks for the 15th cohort of the Legion of Honor.
Becoming a symbol of pre-revolutionary France, Chambord languished to such an extent that its status as a palatial residence and eventual court was completely forgotten. In 1809, after the Battle of Wagram, Napoleon Bonaparte gave the castle to Marshal Berthier, who practically ignored the gift. Upon his death, it was his widow who knew how to take advantage of it by putting it up for sale.
After the Bourbon Restoration, Louis XVIII organized a popular auction in order to recover the castle to hand it over to the grandson of his brother Carlos, Enrique de Artois, as heir to the Crown.
His lack of interest in claiming the throne and his stay in exile made him a more virtual than real owner, although he always called himself Count of Chambord. But the truth is that, united to the castle by a special affection, from his residence in Frohsdorf, in Austria, he undertook an arduous task of reconstruction that returned the fortress to its original appearance. In 1932, his heirs, the Bourbon-Parma family, transferred the property of Chambord to the French State.
Far from past splendor but conscious of its majesty, reflecting impassively in the pond that provides water to its park, the Château de Chambord continues to be a sentinel of the history of France. But, above all, it has become the mirror in which visitors see the dreams of glory of Francis I, its creator, reflected.
