"Château de Chambord" a Chambord Travel Page by black_mimi99

When I saw this Château from far away its an amazing one. Very well restored. I thoroughly enjoyed the visit and every thing was clearly laid out. And then when the car move closer to the Château.... absolutely breathtaking!

The Château of Chambord in one of the loveliest Renaissance buildings in the Valley of the Loire. It is the largest castle in the Loire Valley, but was built to serve only as a hunting lodge for King François I, who maintained his royal residences at Château de Blois and at Château d'Amboise.
Building of the chateau was begun by Francis I in 1519, and was completed in 1547.

The structure, containing 440 rooms, 365 fireplace, 13 great staircases, and stables to accommodate 1200 horses, stands in a park surrounded by a wall of 22 miles in circumference.
For more than 80 years after the death of King François 1 in 1574, French kings all but abandoned the castle, allowing it to fall into decay. Finally, in 1639 King Louis XIII gave it to his brother, Gaston d'Orleans, who saved the castle from ruin by carrying out much restoration work. King Louis XIV had the great keep restored and furnished the royal apartments. The king then added a 300-horse stable, enabling him to use the castle as a hunting lodge and a place to entertain such notables as Molière for a few weeks each year. Nonetheless, Louis XIV abandoned the castle in 1685.

The roofscape of Chambord contrasts with the masses of its masonry and has often been compared with the skyline of a town: it shows eleven kinds of towers and three types of chimneys, without symmetry, framed at the corners by the massive towers. The design parallels are north Italian and Leonardesque.