Château de Chambord

Félibien's drawings based on a wooden model

Façade of the keep

Plan of the keep

Who designed the Château de Chambord is a matter of controversy.[10] The original design is attributed, though with several doubts, to Domenico da Cortona, whose wooden model for the design survived long enough to be drawn by André Félibien in the 17th century.[11] In the drawings of the model, the main staircase of the keep is shown with two straight, parallel flights of steps separated by a passage and is located in one of the arms of the cross. According to Jean-Guillaume, this Italian design was later replaced with the centrally located spiral staircase, which is similar to that at Blois, and a design more compatible with the French preference for spectacular grand staircases. However, "at the same time the result was also a triumph of the centralised layout—itself a wholly Italian element."[12] In 1913 Marcel Reymond suggested[13] that Leonardo da Vinci, a guest of Francis at Clos Lucé near Amboise, was responsible for the original design, which reflects Leonardo's plans for a château at Romorantin for the King's mother, and his interests in central planning and double-spiral staircases; the discussion has not yet concluded,[14] although many scholars now agree that Leonardo was at least responsible for the design of the central staircase.[15][1]

Archaeological findings by Jean-Sylvain Caillou & Dominic Hofbauer have established that the lack of symmetry of some façades derives from an original design, abandoned shortly after the construction began, and which ground plan was organised around the central staircase following a central gyratory symmetry.[16] Such a rotative design has no equivalent in architecture at this period of history, and appears reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci's works on hydraulic turbines or the helicopter. Had it been respected, it is believed that this unique building could have featured the quadruple-spiral open staircase, strangely described by John Evelyn and Andrea Palladio, although it was never built.

Regardless of who designed the château, on 6 September 1519 Francis de Pontbriand was ordered to begin construction of the Château de Chambord.[17] The work was interrupted by the Italian War of 1521–1526, and work was slowed by dwindling royal funds[18] and difficulties in laying the structure's foundations. By 1524, the walls were barely above ground level.[17] Building resumed in September 1526, at which point 1,800 workers were employed in building the château. At the time of the death of King Francis I in 1547, the work had cost 444,070 livres.[18]

Painting by Pierre-Denis Martin of Château de Chambord in 1722

The château was built to act as a hunting lodge for King Francis I;[5] however, the king spent barely seven weeks there in total, that time consisting of short hunting visits. As the château had been constructed with the purpose of short stays, it was not practical to live in on a longer-term basis. The massive rooms, open windows and high ceilings meant heating was impractical. Similarly, as the château was not surrounded by a village or estate, there was no immediate source of food other than game. This meant that all food had to be brought with the group, typically numbering up to 2,000 people at a time.

As a result of all the above, the château was completely unfurnished during this period. All furniture, wall coverings, eating implements and so forth were brought specifically for each hunting trip, a major logistical exercise. It is for this reason that much furniture from the era was built to be disassembled to facilitate transportation. After Francis died of a heart attack in 1547, the château was not used for almost a century.

For more than 80 years after the death of King Francis I, French kings abandoned the château, allowing it to fall into decay. Finally, in 1639 King Louis XIII gave it to his brother, Gaston d'Orléans, who saved the château from ruin by carrying out much restoration work.

Louis XIV's ceremonial bedroom

King Louis XIV had the great keep restored and furnished the royal apartments. The king then added a 1,200-horse stable, enabling him to use the château as a hunting lodge and a place to entertain for a few weeks each year, for example Molière presented the premiere of his celebrated comedy, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme[19] here. Nonetheless, Louis XIV abandoned the château in 1685.[20]

From 1725 to 1733, Stanislas Leszczyński (Stanislas I), the deposed King of Poland and the father-in-law of King Louis XV, lived at Chambord. In 1745, as a reward for valour, the king gave the château to Maurice de Saxe, Marshal of France who installed his military regiment there.[21] Maurice de Saxe died in 1750, and once again the colossal château sat empty for many years.

On the second floor

In 1792, the Revolutionary government ordered the sale of the furnishings; the wall panellings were removed and even floors were taken up and sold for the value of their timber, and, according to M de la Saussaye,[22] the panelled doors were burned to keep the rooms warm during the sales; the empty château was left abandoned until Napoleon Bonaparte gave it to his subordinate, Louis Alexandre Berthier. The château was subsequently purchased from his widow for the infant Duke of Bordeaux, Henri Charles Dieudonné (1820–1883) who took the title Comte de Chambord. A brief attempt at restoration and occupation was made by his grandfather King Charles X (1824–1830) but in 1830 both were exiled. In Outre-Mer: A Pilgrimage Beyond the Sea, published in the 1830s, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow remarked on the dilapidation that had set in: "all is mournful and deserted. The grass has overgrown the pavement of the courtyard, and the rude sculpture upon the walls is broken and defaced".[23] During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) the château was used as a field hospital.

The final attempt to make use of the colossus came from the Comte de Chambord, but after the Comte died in 1883, the château was left to his sister's heirs, the titular Dukes of Parma, then resident in Austria. First left to Robert, Duke of Parma, who died in 1907 and after him, Elias, Prince of Parma. Any attempts at restoration ended with the onset of World War I in 1914. The Château de Chambord was confiscated as enemy property in 1915, but the family of the Duke of Parma sued to recover it, and that suit was not settled until 1932; restoration work was not begun until a few years after World War II ended in 1945.[24] The Château and surrounding areas, some 5,440 hectares (13,400 acres; 21.0 sq mi), have belonged to the French state since 1930.[25]

Today, the Château de Chambord is a popular tourist attraction.

In 1939, shortly before the outbreak of World War II, the art collections of the Louvre and Compiègne museums (including the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo) were stored at the Château de Chambord. An American B-24 Liberator bomber crashed onto the château lawn on 22 June 1944.[26] The image of the château has been widely used to sell commodities from chocolate to alcohol and from porcelain to alarm clocks; combined with the various written accounts of visitors, this made Chambord one of the best known examples of France's architectural history.[27] Today, Chambord is a major tourist attraction, and in 2007 around 700,000 people visited the château.[23]

After unusually heavy rainfall, Chambord was closed to the public from 1 to 6 June 2016. The river Cosson, a tributary of the Loire, flooded its banks and the château's moat. Drone photography documented some of the peak flooding.[28] The French Patrimony Foundation described effects of the flooding on Chambord's 13,000-acre (5,300 ha) property. The 20-mile (32 km) wall around the château was breached at several points, metal gates were torn from their framing, and roads were damaged. Trees were also uprooted and certain electrical and fire protection systems were put out of order. However, the château itself and its collections reportedly were undamaged. The foundation observed that paradoxically the natural disaster affected Francis I's vision that Chambord appears to rise from the waters as if it were diverting the Loire.[29] Repairs are expected to cost upwards of a quarter-million dollars.[30]

One of the twin staircase towers at Waddesdon Manor, inspired by those at the Château de Chambord and disseminated by architect Gabriel-Hippolyte Destailleur between 1874 and 1889.