Chateau de Chambord: History and travel
France has no shortage of castles, but one stands out not just for its size or beauty, but for what it represents. Welcome to the Chatau the Shambul, a royal fantasy brought to life about what a castle should be. And to add to the mystery, maybe, just maybe, this wonderfully eccentric building sprung to life from the imagination of the great artist Leonardo da Vinci. Located in the Lua Valley about 2 hours from Paris, Chatau de Shambo is the largest chatau in the region. It sits in the middle of a vast natural reserve roughly the size of Paris about 5,000 hectares. But unlike most castles, this one wasn’t built for defense. It was built for show. You see, Shamod was not meant to be a royal residence. It was more of a royal retreat, a super sized hunting lodge designed to impress visiting nobility and foreign ambassadors. An impressive does for tourists that is. Deshat de Shambo was the brainchild of King Francois Premier or Francis I. Francis was a man who was never meant to be king. So he had something to prove. Although related to the royals, he was rather far down on the French line of succession. However, when King Louis V 12th and his wife Anna Britain couldn’t have any male children, they married their eldest daughter, Princess Claude, to her cousin, Francis, the future Francis I. The couple married in 1514. Claude was 15 years old and Francis was 19 and a few months later in 1515, Francis became king of France upon the death of his father-in-law. But Francis always dreamed for more. He wanted the parts of Italy that he had an ancestral claim for. And hey, why not apply for the job of Holy Roman Emperor? Unfortunately for Francis, he lost the imperial election of 1519 to become Holy Roman Emperor. It was his rival, King Charles V of Spain and Austria who won it instead. To contain his disappointment, he decided to build a new castle inspired by the Renaissance, but in a French style rather than the Italian. Construction on the royal chatau of Shamborg began immediately. After a stint waging wars in Italy, Francis came back to the Lua and with him he brought back Italian artists and scholars determined to show his power and finesse to everyone. The most famous of them all was Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo is linked to Shambul because he had been convinced by Francis to move to the Lua Valley from Italy in 1516, 3 years before construction began at the Shat Shambul. Francis gave him an allowance and put him up in a manor house nearby called Cluche in the city of Ambis. Francis happened to live right next door to Leonardo in the chat dumb and so popped over to see him often. The two men became friends, well as much of a friend as you can be with the king. Leonardo produced many works for Francis, including drawing up plans for an immense castle at a site called Roman nearby. Whether he drew up plans for the shut the Shamborg is a mystery because no records exist today. But given that the Shat Shamborg is only 32 mi from where Leonardo was staying, it seems quite possible. Leonardo da Vinci died of a stroke in 1519. He left all of his possessions, including that special something known as LJ in French or rather the Mona Lisa in English to Francis I. That same year, construction began on Shata De Shamog. Coincidence? Maybe, but many historians believe that Leonardo’s influence shaped Shamog and Francis greatly. Building a castle this size in the middle of marshland was no easy task. Workers had to reroute the river Kusung, lay deep foundations, and source stone from far field. The project stretched several decades and included thousands and thousands of laborers. The layout of the castle was based around a central keep with four massive towers and a Greek cross floor design. From there, wings and terraces were added along with hundreds of decorative chimneys and windows and that famously eccentric rooftop skyline. At the heart of the shadow is its most famous feature, the double helix staircase. Out of all the design elements at Shambble, this is the one that most art historians believe to have been designed by Leonardo da Vinci. The two spiral staircases intertwine without ever meeting. You can walk up one while someone else walks down the other side and never cross paths. It is an architectural marvel and widely believed to have been based on a sketch from Leonardo’s notebooks. Above the staircase, a lantern tower floods the whole staircase with natural light. It’s not just functional. It is believed to be symbolic, a beacon of enlightenment carved in stone. An appropriate tribute for Leonardo da Vinci Nespa. Francis the first left his royal mark all over Shambo, most notably the salamander. You’ll find carvings of this mythical creature throughout the castle. Why a salamander? It was his personal emblem meant to represent courage, resilience, and the ability to survive fire without being burnt. But despite its grander, Shambol was rarely lived in. Francis the first only stayed here about 40 days in total. It had no heating, no kitchens in the main keep, and it was too isolated to be practical as a resident. When the king visited, hundreds of people had to be brought in, servants, cooks, furniture, tapestries, like a royal camping trip. Everything had to be set up and then taken down again. This was not practical. The chat dumb boys next door as well as any of the other royal castles in the Lir Valley were much simpler to visit and to stay at for the royals. Over a century later, the Sun King Louis the 14th took a liking to the chat de Shambul. He restored part of it, built new wings and even staged plays here, including one by the great French author Molia. But for the Sun King, the new palace that he was building in Versailles was the place to be, not Shambol. During the French Revolution, Shambol was empty and left to collect dust. Later, it was gifted by Napoleon to one of his generals. It was then repurchased in 1821 by the French government and given to the count of Shambul, one of the descendants of the Bourbon King Charles II of France. But the Bourbons were soon overthrown and the chatau fell back into the hands of the French state. It remained empty for most of the time. During the 1870 FrancoRussian War, the chatau even turned into a field hospital, finally put to use, but it was during World War II that the Chatau de Shambo perhaps played its most important role. The Chateau became a secret safe house for the Louv Museum’s treasures. With the German invasion looming, the curators at the Lou were desperately seeking to save its masterpieces from Nazi looting and moved its works in secret all over France. In a twist of fate, the Mona Lisa made her way back to the Lua, secretly hidden at Shambo along with other famous artworks. Nobody thought to look for priceless masterpieces in a dusty old attic in an unused royal palace in the middle of nowhere. Today, visitors can explore the chateau, the elaborate gardens, and Europe’s largest enclosed forest park. The best part of the castle besides that staircase is probably the roof line. It is a forest of chimneys and spirals and spires, all offering amazing views of the gardens and forest below. The estate is teeming with small animals, and you can rent bikes, go on a hike, and even catch the occasional deer roaming the grounds. It may not be a hunting lodge anymore, but this monument to ambition and artistry is finally attracting the crowds it deserves. For more information on how to get to Shambo and the Lua Valley, there is a link in the description to my website for more details about visiting the chateau. 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More info: https://snippetsofparis.com/chateau-chambord/
Explore the majestic Château de Chambord, one of the most iconic castles in France. Built by order of King Francis I in the Loire Valley, Chambord is a jaw-dropping fusion of medieval castle and Renaissance fantasy — with a suspiciously Leonardo da Vinci–esque staircase right at its heart.
🎥 In this video, you’ll discover:
The royal drama behind its construction
Hidden design secrets and architectural marvels
Why da Vinci might’ve had a sneaky hand in its creation
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