French royal château near Blois, Loir-et-Cher. It was built by Francis I, who in 1516, a year after becoming king and fresh from his victories in northern Italy, asked Leonardo da Vinci to draw up the plans for a new château to be built at Romorantin. This project was abandoned two years later, and the King decided to build instead at Chambord, on the edge of a great forest that was enclosed to make a hunting park. Construction started in 1519 and speeded up after 1526; it continued throughout Francis I's reign and was brought to a close under Henry II towards 1550, when the château was almost completed. It was later repaired and finished in the original style under Louis XIV. The project is extraordinary both for its sheer scale (the façade is 156 m long) and, still more, for its originality. The four enormous, round corner towers and the fantastic outline of the building's upper parts, bristling with chimney stacks, dormer windows and turrets, evokes the great princely châteaux of the end of the 14th centur
work_description_source
French royal château near Blois, Loir-et-Cher. It was built by Francis I, who in 1516, a year after becoming king and fresh from his victories in northern Italy, asked Leonardo da Vinci to draw up the plans for a new château to be built at Romorantin. This project was abandoned two years later, and the King decided to build instead at Chambord, on the edge of a great forest that was enclosed to make a hunting park. Construction started in 1519 and speeded up after 1526; it continued throughout Francis I's reign and was brought to a close under Henry II towards 1550, when the château was almost completed. It was later repaired and finished in the original style under Louis XIV. The project is extraordinary both for its sheer scale (the façade is 156 m long) and, still more, for its originality. The four enormous, round corner towers and the fantastic outline of the building's upper parts, bristling with chimney stacks, dormer windows and turrets, evokes the great princely châteaux of the end of the 14th centur
Description
false