NHK World Heritage 100 Series

Narration Text

The Chateau of Chambord lies in an ocean of trees along the Loire River in central France. The facade has many towers almost making it look like a king’s crown. The chateau dates back to the time of François the first. The rows of towers are superbly decorated. The towers are chimneys each leading to a fireplace. Chambord was built to entertain guests and reflect the king’s power; it was not built for fortification purposes.

Shortly after his coronation, he sent troops to Italy. Having brought Milan under his control, he met the master of renaissance art, Leonardo da Vinci. The king invited the 64 year-old to live in France. François the first at that point lived in the Chateau of Amboise. He provided lodgings for Da Vinci nearby - at the Clos Lucé. The King would visit da Vinci almost every evening and talk late into the night. It was on one of those long evenings that the idea came to build a new city. A sketch by da Vinci laid out the plans of an ideal town. The buildings in the sketches rise upward and are drawn dimensionally. There are staircases in the four corners of the building so that people can come and go freely. Da Vinci died shortly afterwards. The King mourning his lost friend sought consolation by hunting in the forest. François I chose it as his location for a tribute to Da Vinci’s genius. The centrepiece at Chambord is a spiral staircase and behind one spiralling staircase is another. The two are independent. They never meet. The king created the stairs true to the spirit of the ideal city sketched out by da Vinci.

The Chateau of Chambord is a Leonardo Da Vinci blueprint and a monumental masterpiece of a King.