Theme Week Chateaux of the Loire Valley – Château d’Amboise
Wednesday, 22 June 2011 - 03:24 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union General , Architecture , Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks , UNESCO World Heritage
Reading Time: 8 minutes
Aerial view © Lieven Smits
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The royal Château at Amboise is a château located in Amboise, in the Indre-et-Loire département of the Loire Valley in France. Built on a promontory overlooking the Loire River to control a strategic ford that was replaced in the Middle Ages by a bridge and the château began its life in the eleventh century, when the notorious Fulk Nerra, Count of Anjou, rebuilt the stronghold in stone.
Expanded and improved over time, on 4 September 1434 it was seized by Charles VII of France, after its owner, Louis d’Amboise, was convicted of plotting against Louis XI and condemned to be executed in 1431. However, the king pardoned him but took his chateau at Amboise. Once in royal hands, the château became a favourite of French kings; Charles VIII decided to rebuild it extensively, beginning in 1492 at first in the French late Gothic Flamboyant style and then after 1495 employing two Italian mason-builders, Domenico da Cortona and Fra Giocondo, who provided at Amboise some of the first Renaissance decorative motifs seen in French architecture. The names of three French builders are preserved in the documents: Colin Biart, Guillaume Senault and Louis Armangeart.
The banks of the Loire and the Maréchal Leclerc Bridge © Tango7174
King Francis I was raised at Amboise, which belonged to his mother, Louise of Savoy, and during the first few years of his reign the château reached the pinnacle of its glory. As a guest of the King, Leonardo da Vinci came to Château Amboise in December 1515 and lived and worked in the nearby Clos Lucé, connected to the château by an underground passage. Tourists are told that he is buried in the Chapel of Saint-Hubert, adjoining the Château, which had been built in 1491–96.
Henry II and his wife, Catherine de’ Medici, raised their children in Château Amboise along with Mary Stuart, the child Queen of Scotland who had been promised in marriage to the future French Francis II.
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