Location: Indre- et- Loire département Map
Bus, Train: from Tours
Tel. 02- 47 23 90 07
Open: daily
Official site
Chateau Chenonceau (French: Château de Chenonceau) is a moated
chateau in the French village of Chenonceaux in the Indre-et-Loire
département in the Centre-Val de Loire region. Its main building
stands – surrounded by water – on the northern bank of the Cher
River, while the gallery built later bridges the Cher. Located about
twelve kilometers south of the Loire at Amboise in the middle of the
Touraine, Chenonceau is one of the castles of the Loire. In addition
to Montsoreau Castle in the Loire, it is the only one that was built
directly in a riverbed.
Around 800,000 tourists visit the
complex every year, making Chenonceau the most visited castle in
France after Versailles. The "most elegant, finest and original of
the Loire castles" is also called the Castle of the Ladies (French
Château des Dames), because it was almost always women who
determined its history.
Its roots lie in a fortified estate
with an associated watermill, which came into the possession of the
French crown through the Bohier family in the first half of the 16th
century. Diane de Poitiers shaped the appearance of the castle
through extensions, just as her successor Katharina von Medici did,
to whom the complex owes its famous gallery.
After the
buildings had been abandoned and no longer inhabited since the end
of the 17th century, the castle was bought by the rich tax tenant
Claude Dupin in 1733. His wife Louise then brought it back to life.
The daughter of the wealthy banker Samuel Bernard and granddaughter
of a member of the Comédie-Française, she maintained a salon on
Chenonceau and thus made it a meeting place for well-known literary
figures and spiritually interested members of the upper class of
society. The descendants of the Dupins sold Chenonceau in 1864 to
the wealthy chemist Théophile-Jules Pelouze, whose wife Marguerite
used the entire family fortune to restore the castle buildings.
Their efforts have been continued since 1951 by the new owners, the
family of the chocolate manufacturer Menier.
The castle
consists of an almost square residential building, which is joined
to the south by a gallery. The two buildings stand in the water of
the Cher. To the north of it stands the former keep of the
predecessor complex – called Tour des Marques – on an island
surrounded by moats, which is flanked to the east and west by two
Renaissance gardens. In addition, a former agricultural estate, an
orangery as well as a chancellery building – the Chancellerie – and
a former economic wing belong to the castle complex. They are all
located north of the main building. This was already listed as a
monument along with the gallery in 1840. The gardens and the park
followed in November 1962.
The almost 800-year-old history of Chenonceau has almost always been shaped by women, at whose behest the castle was expanded to its present appearance. Women made it the center of extravagant festivities of the French royal Court and temporarily a meeting place for illustrious guests from art and culture.
Chenonceau was first mentioned in writing in the 13th century. A mill
site that existed there had been owned by the Lords of Marques since the
1230s. At the end of the 15th century, the family got into financial
difficulties, so that from 1496 its head, Pierre de Marques, was forced
to gradually sell lands from the family estate. The buyer was the same
man every time: Thomas Bohier. But the sales could not solve the money
problems of the Marques family. in 1512, the remaining property –
consisting of a fortified castle house with an associated mill in the
Cher and some land – was put up for auction, and again it was Thomas
Bohier – now the owner of all other lands surrounding Chenonceau – who
acquired the Marquesan property. For a final payment of 12,500 livres,
he also became the owner of the castle and the associated mill on
February 8, 1513.
Bohier had made a career at the French Royal
Court under Charles VIII and Louis XII, and during the reign of Francis
I, he first held the post of general tax collector in Normandy, then
that of royal financial secretary. Raised to the nobility by the king,
Bohier accompanied him on his campaigns in Italy, so that he was
represented in Chenonceaux during his absence by his wife Katherine
Briçonnet, who had a decisive influence on the architectural design of
the moated castle and its construction. She was the niece of the
influential financier Jacques de Beaune-Semblançay.
After the death of Thomas Bohier in 1524, Francis I initiated a
financial audit in order to subsequently control his administration.
Irregularities came to light, which were blamed on Bohier. According to
the results of the investigation, he had embezzled money. Although this
could never be proven to him without a doubt, the king made claims to
Thomas’ son Antoine in the amount of 190,000 livres tournois. In order
to be able to settle this claim, Antoine gave Chenonceau to the crown in
May 1535, which Francis I then used as a hunting lodge. The Connétable
Anne de Montmorency moved into quarters in the castle on behalf of the
king. As the official reason for his cession, however, it was stated
that Antoine had wanted to please the king.
When Henry II
ascended the French throne in 1547, he gave the castle to his mistress
Diane de Poitiers, whom he elevated to Duchess of Valentinois in 1548.
She had numerous changes made to the castle and took advantage of her
good relations with the royal court to not only own Chenonceau as a
gift, but to acquire it by official means. To this end, Diane had the
contract with which Antoine Bohier had ceded the castle to the crown
cancelled, so that he became the owner of the facility again. However,
he was again the debtor of the crown, so the castle was confiscated and
offered for sale by auction. As expected, Diane de Poitiers was awarded
the contract, who officially acquired the property with her own money in
1555.
After the death of Henry II, his widow Catherine of Medici
became regent for her ill-health son Francis II. She had long wanted to
own Chenonceau for herself and used her newfound power to expel the
hated competitor from the castle. She forced Diane to exchange it for
Chaumont Castle. Catherine gave lavish parties in Chenonceau in honor of
her sons and daughters-in-law, which often lasted several days and often
had the character of debauched orgies. On the occasion of the accession
to the throne of Francis II. the first royal fireworks of France took
place at Chenonceau Castle under the direction of Catherine. In
addition, she initiated the construction of the large gallery and – like
her predecessor – had a garden created.
Catherine of Medici
bequeathed the castle, so beloved by her, to her daughter-in-law Louise
de Lorraine-Vaudémont, the wife of Henry III of France. After his
assassination in August 1589, she wore only white mourning clothes
according to court custom, which earned her the nickname The white
queen. For eight years she lived in complete seclusion on Chenonceau. As
an expression of her grief, she had her room decorated with black
paneling, the covers of her furniture made black and spent her time
praying, embroidering and reading. Capuchin nuns, who lived in a
monastic-like community in the attic of the castle, were responsible for
their salvation. Financial difficulties forced Louise de Lorraine to
leave Chenonceau in 1597 and move to the castle of Moulins. A treaty of
24 December of the same year established Gabrielle d'Estrées, the
mistress of Henry IV, in all rights and duties as Louise's successor.
Gabrielle had first got to know the castle that year during a joint
visit with her king. Her son César de Vendôme was already engaged to
Louise's niece Françoise de Lorraine-Mercœur at an early age, and the
king's widow gave Louise and her future husband Chenonceau Castle as a
wedding present in 1601.
Since the two fiances were still too young to exercise their rights
on their own, Chenonceau continued to remain under the care of César's
mother, Gabrielle d'Estrées. But neither she nor her son and his future
wife used it as a place of residence. César de Vendôme officially became
the owner of the estate through his wife in 1624, but he preferred Anet
Castle as a place of residence and left the administration of Chenonceau
and the associated lands to his wife. But even she did not use it as a
residence, it remained abandoned for years. César was succeeded by his
son Louis as lord of the castle, who was succeeded by Louis II Joseph de
Bourbon and his brother Philippe from 1669. Under her aegis, many pieces
of the valuable interior decoration as well as art objects and books
that Catherine of Medici and Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont had
accumulated were either taken to other, preferred residences (for
example, Anet Castle) or sold and given away to Louis XIV. For example,
the statues from the niches of the gallery came to Versailles.
After the death of Louis Joseph, the estate was inherited by his wife
Marie-Anne de Bourbon-Condé, who, on her death in 1718, left it to her
mother Anna Henriette of Palatinate-Simmern, Princess of Condé. The
latter sold the castle in 1720 to the Duke of Bourbon, Louis IV Henri.
In 1733, Claude Dupin, a tax tenant and later administrator of the
royal crown estates, acquired the rather dilapidated castle. His second
wife Louise subsequently revived it by organizing philosophical and
literary salons there, making Chenonceau the meeting place of the most
famous literati and philosophers of her time. For example, Voltaire,
Montesquieu, Buffon and Madame de Deffand as well as Fontenelle,
Marivaux and Madame de Tencin were guests there. Since 1747, possibly
even as early as 1740, Madame Dupin employed a young man as a secretary
and educator for her son, who would later make a name for himself
throughout Europe: Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Louise Dupin died in
1799 and was buried in the park of Chenonceau on the south bank of the
Cher. It was thanks to their prestige and popularity among the
population that the castle survived the French Revolution unscathed and
was not looted or damaged by revolutionaries. The different spelling of
the castle name (Chenonceau) and the place (Chenonceaux) supposedly goes
back to them. By omitting the X – a sign of royal possession - by the
name of the castle, she is said to have expressed her attachment to the
Republican idea during the French Revolution. Although this connection
is not proven, nevertheless it was Louise Dupin who was the first to
write the castle name in documents without an X at the end. She left the
castle to her grand-nephew, a Count of Villeneuve, after whose death in
1863 his heirs sold Chenonceau to Théophile Pelouze in 1864.
Finds of hewn flints suggest that the banks of the Cher were already inhabited in prehistoric times, but knowledge about the appearance of the then Chenonceau is available only for the first half of the 13th century. The medieval castle of the Marques family was a rectangular complex with round corner towers on the northern bank of the Cher, which fed the moats of the castle with water. Behind this complex there was a fortified water mill in the river. Because Jean I. Marques had taken part in a rebellion against the king, Charles VI ordered the king to return to France. Jean's estate was looted in 1411 as punishment by Marshal Jean II Le Maingre. Jean II Marques received permission from Charles VIII and Louis d'Amboise in 1432 to rebuild and fortify his family's estate.
After Thomas Bohier had taken possession of all the lands of the
Marques family in 1513, he began the demolition of the buildings of
Chenonceau in the same year. He only left the keep standing and
redesigned it in early Renaissance forms. in 1515, work began on the
construction of a new castle on the foundations of the former watermill.
Chenonceau was thus built around the same time as Azay-le-Rideau Castle
and earlier than most other Loire castles. It is one of the first
Renaissance buildings in France. Which architect provided the plans for
this is still unknown to this day. Even in the year of the start of
construction, the work on the erection of a central vestibule was
completed. Due to his professional obligations, Thomas Bohier was
traveling in Italy until 1521 and therefore could not supervise the
construction work himself. His wife Catherine Briçonnet represented him
in these matters, so that she is credited with the modern arrangement of
the rooms for those times. The new building was completed in 1522. In
1521/22, Cardinal Antoine Bohier, the lord of the castle's uncle, was
present in Chenonceau to consecrate the castle chapel. In older
representations, there is the assertion that the building plans of
Bohier already provided for the component that would later make
Chenonceau so famous due to its uniqueness: the gallery. However, this
has since been refuted and resulted from the incorrect interpretation of
an old document.
At that time, a 1-acre fruit and vegetable
garden belonged to the castle to provide for the inhabitants of the
castle. Nothing is known about its exact appearance. However, it is
certain that at the beginning of the 16th century the long access avenue
already existed, which at that time was still lined with elms and oaks.
Diane de Poitiers decisively shaped Chenonceau's appearance. One of
her lasting legacies was the creation of a two-hectare garden from 1551.
The gardens of Blois and Amboise, designed by the Italian landscape
architect Pacello da Mercogliano, served as a model. The first works on
this included raising the area northeast of the castle by pouring earth
and supporting it with piles on the side facing the Cher. On the
remaining three sides, the area was surrounded by ditches fed by the
Cher.
The garden was one of the most spectacular and modern of
its time. For his beds and parterres, owners of the most beautiful
gardens of Touraine donated flowers and plants, including such rare
plants as artichokes and melons. Among the donors, for example, was the
Archbishop of Tours, who also sent his own gardener to the Cher as
support, and its Vicar General Jean de Selve. The latter was a friend
and supporter of Bernard Palissy, who a few years later was also to work
in Chenonceau.
The work on the Dianes de Poitiers garden took
about five years and cost more than 5000 livres. Among other things,
7,000 quarry stones, 1,100 lawns, 13,000 hawthorns and hazelnut bushes
were paid for hedges and arbors, as well as currant bushes, wild roses,
lilies, paradise apple and peach trees. From the surrounding forests,
even 9000 violets and wild strawberries were collected for planting in
the garden.
The Duchess of Valentinois also had a park built on
the southern bank of the Cher, which could only be reached by boat. To
make it more accessible, the idea of building a bridge over the river
was born in 1555. Diane de Poitiers commissioned Philibert Delorme to
carry out this plan. He designed an arched bridge with a low gallery in
order to be able to use the new building not only as a connection to the
other bank of the river, but also as a banquet hall, because festivals
at that time always had to be celebrated outdoors, because the castle
did not offer sufficiently large premises for this. But only the bridge
was executed, because the construction work was interrupted in 1559 by
the death of Henry II, when the construction of the gallery had not yet
begun. A pen drawing shows the state of construction between 1559 and
1576. It shows the completed arched bridge, at the southern end of which
there is a fortified gate building with a drawbridge.
It was Catherine of Medici who – after expelling her long-time rival
from the castle - had the gallery planned by Delorme executed between
1570 and 1576. The new building was inaugurated at a festival in honour
of Henry III in May 1577. Who was the architect can not be said with
certainty to this day and is controversial among building historians.
Both Denis Courtin and Jean Bullant, who had succeeded Delorme in the
office of the first architect of the Queen, are eligible for this. While
Jean-Pierre Babelon (see literature) cites Bullant as the gallery's
architect, Jean Guillaume refers to the very different decor compared to
the Écouen and Fère-en-Tardenois complexes. At least Bullant was
commissioned by Katharina with plans for an enlargement of the castle
buildings. This resulted in a huge renovation project that would have
enlarged the existing buildings tenfold and which the French architect
Jacques I. Androuet du Cerceau captured in several engravings. But only
a few things came to fruition from the plans; among them, a wing of the
farm buildings in the period from 1580 to 1585. There, Catherine
established a silkworm breeding and thus introduced this profession to
France. He also changed the logis. On the small terrace between the
chapel and the cabinet extension, a connecting building was built, which
ensured a smooth completion of the facade to the northeast. The
representative northern facade was also redesigned: the window surfaces
were doubled and caryatids and atlases were placed between them.
Chenonceau Castle, and in particular its northern facade, redesigned by
Catherine of Medici, was the model for the Château Régis, built from
1860.
In addition, Catherine did the same to her rival Diane de
Poitiers and had Catherine's garden laid out by Medici. According to
Bernard Palissy's plans, begun in 1563, he also owned an aviary, a
menagerie, a sheepfold and an artificially created grotto in addition to
a large water basin surrounded by flower and shrub beds in the area now
called Jardin Vert. In addition, the regent had lemon and orange trees
imported for the gardens and planted over 1000 mulberry trees for the
planned silkworm breeding.
Louise de Lorraine retired to Chenonceau after the death of her
husband and had her bedroom, which was located in the middle wing
between the chapel and the cabinet built by Catherine of Medici, covered
with black paneling. Subsequently, the buildings were not changed for a
long time.
It was only under Louise Dupin that redesigns were
made again. She had the attic of the gallery divided into small
apartments and set up a small theater, where, among other things,
Jean-Jacques Rousseau's opera Le devin du village and his comedy
L'engagement téméraire were premiered. Louise Dupin also saved the
castle chapel from being destroyed during the French Revolution by
turning it into a wood warehouse.
Marguerite Pelouze had the castle extensively restored from 1865 to 1878 at great financial expense. The architect in charge was Félix Roguet, a pupil of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. On the basis of engravings by Jacques I. Androuet du Cerceau, all the buildings of the castle complex were restored to the condition of the 16th century. So the mistress of the castle had the intermediate building with the bedroom of Louise de Lorraine demolished and their mourning paneling then attached to the ceiling of the gallery. In addition, she had the caryatids and atlases removed from the northern facade and set them up east of the avenue in the park. During the works, the interior decoration of the lodge was also renewed – although not in an authentic condition –, as well as the completely overgrown gardens were restored.
The current state of the Chenonceau castle complex is the result of further extensive restoration work, which has been carried out continuously for more than 50 years. In the summer of 1951, Hubert Menier and his wife decided to rebuild the estate. At that time, all the roofs of the buildings were covered and the Dianes de Poitiers garden was completely destroyed by a flood on May 7, 1940. The Menier family hired the architect Bernard Voisin for the reconstruction work. Renewed restoration work in the interiors of the logis was just as necessary as the liberation of the large park from dense undergrowth. One of the last measures carried out so far was the renovation of the former horse stables in the farm buildings in 2000.
An approximately 330-meter-long avenue of plane trees with moats on
the sides leads straight to a lawn parterre, the entrance area of which
is flanked by two sphinx statues from the reign of Louis XIV. They
probably come from Chanteloup Castle. The ground floor is joined to the
south by an island surrounded by moats with the former keep of the
complex. From there, the main building of the castle with its adjoining
gallery can be reached via the Cher via a bridge. To the west of the
avenue are the former agricultural estate of the castle, as well as the
orangery.
A complex of former farm buildings flanks the west side
of the lawn parterre. From there you can enter both the Dianes de
Poitiers garden to the east and the Catherine of Medici Garden to the
southwest.
The buildings of the agricultural castle estate date back to the 16th
century and have already experienced many different uses over the
centuries. Once built to provide for the residents of the castle, they
now partly serve as a furniture warehouse and a flower shop, but their
original purpose is also being pursued again today. The approximately
10,000 m2 of the former vegetable garden belonging to the estate are
used by a nursery, which supplies the castle with fresh flower
arrangements several times a week.
The elongated wing with the
former farm buildings on the western edge of the lawn parterre is called
the Bâtiment de Dômes (English: dome building) and is one of the few
projects from Catherine of Medici's comprehensive expansion plans that
has been put into practice. In the early days, it housed apartments for
servants and a silkworm farm initiated by Katharina, before the building
was converted into horse stables in the 19th century. The two-storey
building is built of light limestone and has a roof in the form of an
overturned ship keel. Its center with the arched portal has a tower-like
top with a clock on the upper floor, which is closed by a lantern. The
corners of the wing of the building, the roof of which is equipped with
louvres at regular intervals, are formed by pavilion towers.
On an island in front of the main building stands the keep of the
predecessor complex, which is called Tour des Marques after its
long-standing owner family. Despite a reconstruction under Thomas Bohier
in the style of the early Renaissance, he still owns his rampart with
machiculis, which at that time, however, only served decorative
purposes. Bohier has immortalized himself here – as in many places of
the castle – with the initials TBK (the first letters of his name and
his wife's first name) and the saying "S'il vient a point, me
souviendra" (English: "When it is completed, it will remind of me").
The round tower has a conical helmet covered with slate shingles
with a concluding lantern. Its three floors are accessed via a stair
tower, in which the tower portal is also located. This, like the
majority of the windows, is framed by pilasters. As an additional
decoration, some windows of the battlements have small gables in
keel-arch form with shell filling.
In front of the tower stands
the only other remnant of the medieval castle complex: the former castle
fountain. Its wall is decorated with a sculpture of a chimera and an
eagle, the emblem of the Marques family.
The pre-island is connected to the main building of the castle, which
is called the logis, via a bridge on its south side. The three-storey
building made of white limestone has a square floor plan and stands on
two stone foundation blocks in the middle of the river. On the ground
floor, the logis is extended on its northeast side by two extensions,
which house a chapel and a cabinet and enclose a small terrace between
them.
The first Italian influences on French architecture are
visible on the main building. The three-axis north facade, with its
central portal, is completely symmetrical in the arrangement of the
window and door openings. The balcony above the portal has a parapet,
which is decorated with an elaborately designed baluster frieze. This
frieze is repeated as a continuous cordon cornice on cantilevered stones
under the eaves of a slate roof and is interrupted only on the northeast
side by the extensions of the chapel and the cabinet. All windows are
framed by pilasters standing on horizontal cornices. The triaxiality is
maintained in the attic by the fact that three louvres can be found
there, of which the louvres of the central axis are designed larger than
the two adjacent ones. Together with the outdoor fireplaces, they
feature an exceptionally diverse sculptural decoration in the form of
arabesque friezes, medallions, triangular pediments, candelabra and
shell arches.
The logis is joined to the south by a bridge with
five arches over the Cher, which carries a simple, three-storey gallery
in the style of French classicism and gives the castle its distinctive
silhouette. Their walls are unpainted. The attic has nine regularly
arranged hatches with ox eyes on each of its long sides.
The interior of the main building impresses with an extraordinary
abundance of old and valuable furniture, as well as numerous works of
art. The collection of paintings housed in the castle is mainly based on
the collecting activity of Marguerite Pelouze and includes numerous old
masters.
The symmetry of the facades is continued in the interior
by a corresponding room layout. On all floors, four rooms of almost the
same size are arranged around a central vestibule.
The vestibule of the ground floor can be entered through a
monumental, two-winged portal made of wood. The door dates back to the
time of Franz I and is richly decorated with colorful paintings and
carvings. The left door leaf shows the coat of arms of Thomas Bohier,
his right counterpart that of his wife Catherine Briçonnet. Above the
lintel on the outside there is the heraldic animal of Francis I, the
salamander, and the Latin inscription FRANCISCVS DEI GRATIA FRANCORVM,
CLAVDIA FRANCORVM REGINA ("Franz by God's grace King of France, Claude,
Queen of the French"). Above the door, a stained-glass window by Max
Ingrand shows a scene from the life of Saint Hubertus.
The
central vestibule, together with the staircase to the first floor, is
based on Italian models and for the first time offered an alternative to
the arrangement of the rooms along a long gallery, which was customary
in France until then. The room has a ceiling with a ribbed vault from
1515, the keystones of which are not mounted in a straight line, but
always lie alternately on three different axes. At 3.5 meters, it is
half as wide as the adjacent rooms. The floor is covered with enameled
tiles. Their decoration with geometric figures is no longer present due
to wear in most places and is still recognizable only in the less
frequently used edge areas.
Behind the entrance, on the left, an
oak door with rectangular cartouches and the two patron saints of the
builders – St. Catherine and St. Thomas – on the door wings leads to the
Gardensaal (French Salle des gardes), which was used as a dining room
after the Middle Ages. The majolica covering of the floor, which comes
from Italy, has already been ceded and has only been preserved at the
edges. The hall has a beamed ceiling with coffered paneling and a
fireplace from the 16th century, which shows the coat of arms of Thomas
Bohier. On the walls also hang from the 16th century. Flemish tapestries
with scenes from the life of the castle, dating back to the XVIII
century.
The garden hall is joined to the east by the castle
chapel in the style of the outgoing Gothic. It has a rectangular floor
plan and a three-bay apse. The colorful leaded glass windows were made
by Max Ingrand in 1954, because the originals had been destroyed in a
bombing raid in 1944. The chapel also features a relief of a Madonna and
Child in Carrara marble, made in the 16th century by the Italian
sculptor Mino da Fiesole. From a wooden gallery above the entrance from
1521, the queens watched the mass, during which the guards stationed for
their protection apparently got bored from time to time and therefore
passed the time with wall graffiti. Two of these are still preserved
today. One comes from a Scottish guard of Mary Stuart from the year
1543, the second dates to the year 1546.
The second room, located
on the eastern side of the vestibule, is named after its former
occupant, Zimmer Dianes de Poitiers (French: Chambre de Diane de
Poitiers). Tapestries from the same Flemish workshop as those from the
garden hall hang on the walls. According to their motives, they possess
the names Triumph of strength and Triumph of mercy. The focal point of
the room, however, is the fireplace attributed to Jean Goujon with a
modern portrait of Catherine of Medici. The fireplace bears on its
cornice the gilded initials of Henry II. and his wife (Hs and Cs). These
letters are also repeated in the coffered ceiling of the room. His other
valuable pieces of equipment are two chairs with a cover made of Corduan
leather and the painting Madonna and Child attributed to Bartolomé
Esteban Murillo.
From the room Dianes de Poitiers a door leads
into the cabinet extension. It served Katharina von Medici as a study
with a small library attached to it. The beamed ceiling of the study
with green painting on tin foil – showing intertwined Cs - together with
a green wall covering gave the name to the extension: Grünes Kabinett
(French Cabinet Vert). The motifs of a Brussels tapestry from the 16th
century hanging on the wall are inspired by the discovery of America and
its flora and fauna. The library has an elaborately designed coffered
ceiling made of oak wood with the initials of the first two owners of
the castle. Dating back to 1525, it is the oldest surviving ceiling of
its kind in France. In these two small rooms, numerous valuable
paintings by old masters hang in a confined space, for example by Jacopo
Tintoretto (among others Salomon at the Queen of Sheba), Jacob Jordaens
(The Drunken Silenus), Hendrick Goltzius (Samson and the Lion), Nicolas
Poussin, Antonio da Correggio and van Dyck.
From the vestibule,
the Salon Franz'I (French Salon de François Ier) is located opposite the
room of Diane de Poitiers. He received his name in honor of two visits
of the French king, who was hosted by Catherine Briçonnet in the castle.
The motto of Thomas Bohier can be found on the ledge of the great
Renaissance fireplace, as on the Tour des Marques (see The former keep).
The walls are covered with painted linen wallpapers from the 19th
century, which imitate the leather wallpapers popular in the 16th
century. On it hang, among other things, a self-portrait of van Dyck,
Gabrielle d'Estrées as the hunting goddess Diana by Ambroise Dubois, The
three graces by van Loo and Primaticcio's famous portrait Dianes de
Poitiers as a huntress. Among the furniture, an Italian cabinet cabinet
stands out. The piece of furniture, made in the 16th century by a
Florentine master, has inlays made of mother-of-pearl and ivory,
decorated with pen drawings. It was a wedding present to Francis II and
Mary Stuart.
The fourth living room on the ground floor is called
the Salon of Louis XIV (French Salon de Louis XIV) after the last French
king who stayed at Chenonceau Castle. On its walls, covered with crimson
cloth wallpaper, a large portrait of the Sun King by Hyacinthe Rigaud
commemorates his visit. Ludwig made the painting a gift to the then lord
of the castle, his uncle, the Duke of Vendôme. Its elaborately carved
frame has a ducat gold edition. The large, white stucco fireplace shows
in golden color the heraldic animals of Franz'I. and his wife Claude de
France, the salamander and the ermine. Its appearance is the result of a
restoration in the 19th century. In addition to Rigaud's portrait of the
King, works by other well-known painters can be found in this room,
including Rubens’ The Boy Jesus and Saint John, a portrait of the former
castle owner Louise Dupin by Jean-Marc Nattier and one by Nicolas
Mignard, which shows her father Samuël Bernard.
As with the vestibule, new architectural paths were also taken in
Chenonceau with the staircase form. Thomas Bohier had a staircase with
two straight runs built, based on Italian models, instead of resorting
to the spiral staircase principle that was still common in France at
that time. This makes it probably the second staircase ever built in
France in this form. Only in Bury Castle such a staircase had already
been realized before, but it has not survived today.[28] The staircase
has a ceiling in the form of a barrel vault with keystones and cassettes
in the antique style and leads into the vestibule of the first floor,
also called the Catherine Briçonnets vestibule. The room layout of this
floor is – with the exception of the chapel extension – identical to
that of the ground floor.
The vestibule has a tiled floor and an
exposed beamed ceiling. On its walls hang tapestries of the 17th century
from Oudenaarde. Her motifs based on van der Meulen's designs show
scenes of a Parforce hunt. Above the lintels there are medallions that
Catherine of Medici brought from Italy. They show the portraits of Roman
emperors.
To the left of the stairs is the Gabrielles d'Estrées
room (French: Chambre de Gabrielle d'Estrées). The former mistress of
Henry IV used this room as a bedroom for the duration of her temporary
stays in the castle. In addition to a beamed ceiling and a tiled floor,
it has a large fireplace from the Renaissance period. The tapestries
based on designs by Lucas van der Leyden or Lucas van Nevele also date
from this era.
On the other side of the staircase is the former
bedroom of César de Vendôme (French Chambre de César de Vendôme),
Gabrielle's common son with Henry IV. Under a painted beamed ceiling
there is furniture from the 16th century, which is complemented by a
three-part tapestry series from the 17th century. The Renaissance
fireplace bears the coat of arms of Thomas Bohier only since a
restoration of the room in the 19th century. On the wall hangs the
portrait of St. Joseph by Murillo. The two wooden caryatid figures from
the 17th century are the eye-catchers in this room. The windows frame
the west window.
On the opposite side of the vestibule and thus
above the room of Diane de Poitiers is the former bedroom of Catherine
of Medici (French Chambre de Catherine de Medicis). Like César's room,
this room owes its current appearance to restoration work in the 19th
century. It is furnished with furniture and wall hangings from the 16th
century and has a Renaissance fireplace made of white Carrara marble.
The most valuable painting in this room is Correggio's Teaching of Love
as an oil-on-wood execution. The canvas version of this painting is in
the National Gallery London.
From Katharina's bedroom a door
leads into the cabinet extension. Above the Green Cabinet of the ground
floor is the Cabinet of Prints (French Cabinet d'Estampes), in which a
collection of drawings and engravings can be seen. They all have the
castle as a motive.
Next to Catherine's bedroom is the Room of
the Five Queens (French Chambre des cinq reines), which is supposed to
be reminiscent of Elisabeth of Valois, Margaret of Valois, Maria Stuart,
Elisabeth of Austria and Louise de Lorraine-Vaudémont by its name. Their
coats of arms can be found in the coffered ceiling from the 16th
century. Tapestries from the same period hang on the walls, as well as
paintings by Rubens and Nicolas Mignard, among others.
In addition to the vestibule of the attic, whose exceptionally shaped beamed ceiling has been fully displayed again since the restoration in the 19th century, there is only one room of interest on this floor: the so-called Louise de Lorraine bedroom (French: Chambre de Louise de Lorraine). The room is not the original room, because at that time it was located in a part of the castle that no longer exists today. However, the room is equipped with the contemporary paneling of Louise, which the queen dowager received after the death of her husband Henry III. i had it installed in her bedroom to express her grief. The black panels are painted with white motifs such as thorns, widow's cords and bones, while the furniture has a fabric covering made of black damask.
The economic rooms of the castle are located in the two hollow
pillars of the logis. The first room of the basement can be reached via
a narrow staircase at the south-eastern end of the ground floor
vestibule: the so-called sideboard (French office). The room has a
ceiling with a cross vault and is equipped with the largest fireplace in
the entire castle. Right next to this there is an oven in the same wall.
The servants' dining room adjoins the sideboard to the northeast, while
a pantry adjoins it to the southwest. The room is also connected to the
butcher's shop (French boucherie) via a door, where all the utensils for
the expert slaughter and dismemberment of an animal are still available
today.
A narrow bridge leads from the sideboard to the second
foundation pillar, in which the actual kitchen is located. Although it
still has its large fireplace with roasting skewers from the Renaissance
period, it was equipped with modern appliances at the beginning of the
20th century to meet the supply needs of the hospital, which was set up
in the gallery during the First World War. A boat dock on the second
pillar is visible from the bridge. Merchants who used to supply the
castle with food and other necessities could moor there with their boats
very close to the economic areas without having to accept long delivery
routes by land.
The central vestibule of the ground floor is joined in the southeast by the 60-meter-long and six-meter-wide gallery, which is supported by an arched bridge over the Cher. Because it was added to the logis only later, the architectural symmetry of the entire ensemble is destroyed by it, because it does not join at the height of the symmetrical central axis of the main building, but is shifted slightly to the south. Their interior is kept very simple. It has a floor covered with black and white slate and tuff tiles and a beamed ceiling. Between the nine windows on both sides there are niches, in which plants used to stand statues, as well as wall decorations in the form of medallions from the 18th century. There are large fireplaces on the two narrow end faces of the gallery, but the one at the southern end is without function. It only frames an exit that leads over a drawbridge to the left bank of the Cher.
Chenonceau Castle has around 80 hectares of garden and park areas,
which are spread over two Renaissance gardens in the Italian style as
well as a large, almost exclusively wooded park.
In order to
protect the two gardens from flooding during the floods, they were laid
out on walled terraces. Each spring and summer they are planted with new
flowers grown in the castle's own nursery. About 60,000 to 64,000 plants
are needed for this per year.
To the northeast of the logis there is a rectangular terrace of more
than 12,000 m2 with the Dianes de Poitiers garden. It can be entered via
a stone bridge from the lawn ground floor. At the entrance of the garden
is the former chancellery (French Chancellerie) from the 16th century,
where there is also a boat dock.
The center of the garden is
formed by a roundel. In its center there is a water fountain, the jet of
which is six meters high. Already the French architect Jacques I.
Androuet du Cerceau described this extraordinary construction in 1576 in
the first volume of his engraving work Les plus excellents Bastiments de
France. At that time she was unique in France. From the central
roundabout, eight straight paths radiate to the corners and edges of the
terrace and thus divide the area into eight parterres planted with lawn.
In addition to flowers and ornamental shrubs such as boxwood,
oleander and laurel trees as well as European yew and shrub marshmallow,
fruit trees and hazelnut shrubs can be found as planting in the Dianes
de Poitiers garden.
The Garden of Catherine of Medici is the younger and smaller of the two castle gardens of Chenonceau. It has an almost trapezoidal floor plan. In its center stands a circular, low water basin with a diameter of 15 meters. From this, four straight paths continue and in this way divide the garden into four unequally large parterres. On its northwest and southwest sides, the garden is surrounded by the old trees of the large castle park.
Chenonceau's buildings and gardens are surrounded by a 70-hectare
park, the majority of which consists of forest. It extends both north
and south of the Cher and already in the Middle Ages made up a large
part of the domain belonging to the castle at that time.
In the
part of the park, which is located to the east of the long access
avenue, there is a maze of 2000 yew trees reconstructed according to
original plans from the time of Catherine of Medici. In the immediate
vicinity are the eight caryatids and atlases, which were formerly
attached to the north facade of the logis’.
The so-called Green
Garden (French: Jardin Vert) adjoins the northwest side of the garden of
Catherine of Medici. It is bordered on its east side by the former farm
buildings and on the north by the orangery. The simple garden, designed
according to Bernard Palissy's designs, consists of a large lawn area,
which is planted with trees and shrubs – including Japanese kerrien and
spice bushes – and decorated with sculptures.
Chenonceau Castle is now home to two museums and an art gallery. The
logis serves as the first museum with numerous paintings by old masters
as well as furniture and tapestries from the 15th to 17th centuries.
Since June 2000, there has also been a wax museum in a part of the
Bâtiment de Dômes, called the Galerie des Dames. There are 15
significant events with important people of the castle history depicted
as scenes. All the characters wear clothes that were made according to
original documents and made from fabrics that were already available in
terms of material and workmanship during the lifetime of the real
people.
Since 1979, exhibitions of contemporary art have been
regularly shown on the first floor of the gallery above the Cher during
the summer months. Artists such as Bernard Buffet, Miquel Barceló and
Zao Wou-Ki have already been among the exhibitors.
The orangery
building can be rented for celebrations and receptions, while the former
horse stables are now home to a self-service restaurant for visitors to
the castle.
As with many other castles in the Loire, an event
called Son et Lumière, a light and sound show, takes place at Chenonceau
Castle on summer evenings after dark. To the music of Arcangelo Corelli,
the buildings and gardens are illuminated with spotlights and bathed in
colorful light.
The building was literally received in Alfred
Andersch's story With the boss to Chenonceaux.