Château de Chambord
Francis I’s hunting château in the Loire Valley unites the Italian Renaissance with French Gothic tradition. The plan is strictly symmetrical, but the roof is a forest of chimneys, turrets and lanterns. At the centre runs a double spiral staircase on which two people can go up and down without meeting.
Francis I had brought Italian artists home from his campaigns, among them Leonardo da Vinci, who died at Amboise in 1519, the same year building began. Many have therefore credited Leonardo with the idea for the plan and the staircase, but no drawings exist to prove it. The château was built as a hunting lodge on a royal scale, with more than 400 rooms and some 280 fireplaces.
Chambord shows how French architecture received the Renaissance: symmetry, pilasters and Italian ornament, but combined with the round towers of the medieval castle and the tall roofs suited to a northern climate. The king stayed here for only a few weeks in total. The château and the Loire Valley are World Heritage Sites, and it became a model for French château architecture in the 16th century.