Château of Blois

In 854, the Blois castle, known as Blisum castrum, was attacked by Viking cheftain Hastein. In the 10th and 11th centuries,[3] the Counts of Blois, who also owned Chartres and Champagne, joined together to rebuild the fortress. Count Theobald I raised a so-called "big tower" and by the end of the 12th century, the Counts' contributions were finished by building the St-Sauveur Collegiate Church.[3]

The "Estates General Room" (Salle des États Généraux in French), built in the beginning of the 13th century, is one of the oldest seignoral rooms preserved in France, and is also the largest remaining civilian Gothic room of the country.[2] This room was used as a court of justice by the Counts of Blois and again in 1576 and 1588 during so-called Estates General.

The medieval castle was given in 1397 to Louis I, Duke of Orléans, brother of Charles VI. After Louis' assassination, his widow, Valentina Visconti, retired to the Blois Castle. It was later inherited by their son, Charles d'Orléans the poet, who was captured at Agincourt and imprisoned in England.[3] After 25 years as a hostage in England, Charles d'Orleans returned to his beloved Blois and partly helped rebuild the chateau as a more commodious dwelling.[3] It became the favourite royal residence and the Kingdom's political capital under Charles' son, when Count Louis II became King Louis XII of France in 1498.

The interior of the Louis XII wing, with the chapel to the right

At the beginning of the 16th century, King Louis XII initiated a reconstruction of the entrance of the main block and the creation of an Italian garden in terraced parterres where Victor Hugo Square stands today.

This wing, of red brick and grey stone, forms the main entrance to a proper château onwards, and features a statue of the mounted King above the entrance. Although the style is principally Gothic, as the profiles of mouldings, the lobed arches and the pinnacles attest, there are elements of Renaissance architecture present, such as a small chandelier.

When Francis I became King in 1515, his wife Queen Claude had him refurbish Blois with the intention of moving from the Château of Amboise to Blois.[3] Francis initiated the construction of a new wing and created one of the period's most important libraries in the castle.[4] After the death of his wife in 1524, he spent very little time at Blois and the massive library was moved to the royal Château of Fontainebleau. It is this library that formed the royal library and the backbone of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

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  The rear of the Francis I wing, facing over central Blois in the 1890s
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  The rear of the wing in 2007
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  The Château's most renowned feature, the spiral staircase in the Francis I wing

Since King Louis XII was very committed in the Italian campaigns, which imported the Renaissance movement into Blois, this wing's architecture and ornamentation are marked by Italian influence. In the middle, there is the monumental spiral staircase, covered with fine bas-relief sculptures and looking out onto the château's central court. These monumental staircases served as a draft for those of the château of Chambord, built a few years later. Behind this wing is the "Lodges Façade" (Façade des Loges in French), characterised by a series of disconnected niches.

Driven from Paris during the French Wars of Religion, King Henry III took refuge in Blois, and summoned Estates General meetings there in 1576 and 1588. On 23 December 1588, the King's arch-enemy since the Day of the Barricades, Henry I, Duke of Guise, was assassinated. The following day, the Duke's brother, Louis II, Cardinal of Guise was also murdered within the château.[5]

The "King's Chamber" with King Henry IV's H in the floor tiles

The "Chamber of Secrets", allegedly believed to be Catherine de' Medici's secret hiding place for poisons

After this, the castle was occupied by King Henry IV, the first Bourbon monarch. On Henry's death in 1610, it became the place of exile for his widow, Marie de' Medici, when she was expelled from the court of her son, King Louis XIII.[4]

In 1626, King Louis XIII gave the county and the Château of Blois to his brother and heir, Gaston of France, Duke of Orléans as a wedding gift. In 1634, Gaston embarked on building a completely new wing to the château.[6] The task of developing this new castle was given to François Mansart.[6] The rear of the courtyard is where Mansart began this ambitious building project with a main dwelling house. This house should have been the first building in a large-scale reconstruction project.[6] The project was stopped in 1638 when Gaston's nephew was born, the future Louis XIV.[6] With Louis XIV's birth, Gaston was no longer the heir and no longer eligible for financing.

This wing makes up the rear wall of the court, directly opposite the Louis XII wing. The central section is composed of three horizontal layers where the superposition of Doric, Ionic and Corinthian orders can be seen.[6]

By the time of the French Revolution, the immense castle had been neglected for more than 130 years. The contents, many of its statues, royal emblems and coats of arms of the palace were removed. In a state of near-total disrepair, the Château of Blois was scheduled to be demolished but was given a reprieve as a military barracks.[5]

In 1840, the initiative of Prosper Mérimée placed the château on the list of historical monuments.[7] This allowed state funds to be used in the preservation.[7] It was restored under the direction of the architect Félix Duban.[3]

The château is maintained and owned by the town of Blois and has been opened to the public as a museum and tourist attraction. On view for visitors are the supposed poison cabinets of Catherine de' Medici. Most likely this room, the "Chamber of Secrets", had a much more banal purpose: exhibiting precious objects for guests.[7]

The following individuals were born inside the Château:

• Charles of Blois (in 1319);
• Louis XII (in 1462), King of France between 1498 and 1515;
• Marguerite Louise d'Orléans (in 1645), daughter of Gaston of Orléans.

The following individuals died within the Château:

• Anne of Brittany (in 1514), last Queen of Brittany, married Louis XII in 1499;
• Claude of France (in 1524), daughter of King Louis XII and Queen Anne of Brittany, married Francis I;
• Henry I of Guise (in 1588), 3rd Duke of Guise, assassinated after his participation to the Day of the Barricades;
• Louis II of Guise (in 1588), Duke of Guise's brother;
• Catherine de' Medici (in 1589), wife of King Henry II, was exiled in Blois by her son, King Henry III;
• Gaston of Orléans (in 1660), son of King Henry IV and last Count of Blois.