Château de Chambord - the largest in the Loire Valley and one of the most famous in France. The emergence of his royal passion he must, in addition, it is believed that by its architecture a hand in Leonardo da Vinci.

Construction of the castle began in 1519 on the orders of a handsome man of pleasure and Francis I, who wanted to be closer to his mistress, the Countess Claude de Turi kind of Rohan, who lived nearby. Location chosen for the castle near the water, on a bend of the river Cosson. History has not preserved the name of the architect who performed whim of the king, but the tradition ascribes to participate in the design of Leonardo da Vinci.

It is difficult to say to what extent this great artist, a scientist, an engineer was involved in the project in France under royal patronage of Leonardo was in 1516, but died already May 2, 1519. But the stairs of the castle of two intertwined spirals bears the stamp of genius: its branches nested within each other, so that up and down on it can not meet.

Construction of the castle was one of the great engineering companies of the French Renaissance. For it delivered 220 thousand tons of stone, the river was taken in a special pit, into the swampy soil scored twelve-oak piles, on which lay the foundation. Rectangular castle erected around the center of the objects which by tradition of the Middle Ages called the dungeon. Inside the keep - 5 residential floors. The length of the facade of the castle - 156 meters, there 426 rooms, 77 staircases, 282 fireplaces.

Francis I had to hunt around Chambord only a few times (mostly in the company of beautiful women of the court). Later monarchs are not too interested in the castle, Louis XIII gave it to his brother Gaston d'Orleans. Louis XIV undertook the reconstruction of Chambord, and it is here October 14, 1670 the great Molière was first successfully introduced to the King of his "Bourgeois Gentilhomme." Later he lived in the castle of the deposed Polish king Stanislaw Leszczynski. The revolution of Chambord was sacked by Napoleon gave it to Marshal Berthier, during the Franco-Prussian War, there was a hospital.

In 1930 the French state bought the castle, and in 1939, five days before the declaration of war on Germany, the Louvre museum workers have launched an operation to smuggle art treasures in the countryside. The Chambord among other works went priceless "Mona Lisa" and the Venus de Milo. The Nazis did not find them after the war, they returned unharmed to the Louvre.

Castle repeatedly endangers: June 22, 1944 right on his lawn crashed American bomber B-24, in 1945 a fire destroyed part of the roof of the keep. In 1947, work began to transform the castle into a tourist site.

Now Chambord is visited annually by more than 700 thousand tourists. In addition to the magnificent architecture and the view from the upper terrace, the visitor has the opportunity to assess the marvelous tapestry "The Hunt of King Francis", relating to the first quarter of the XVII century. These works created before the appearance of the famous Paris Royal Tapestry Manufactory.