Castle of Blois

The castle royal of Blois , located in the Department of Loir-et-Cher, belonged to the Loire ch4ateau. It was the favorite residence of the kings de France with the Rebirth.

Located in the middle of the town of Blois, on Right Bank of the the Loire, the royal castle of Blois joins together around the same court a panorama of the French architecture of the Middle Ages at the time traditional. The restored royal apartments are furnished and decorated polychrome decorations.

History

During the reign of Charles the Bald person, in 854, “Blisum castrum” (“the castle of Blois”), built on the edges of the the Loire, is attacked by the Viking S. the rebuilt fortress is in the middle of the area whose are Masters the counts de Blois, powerful feudal lords with. The first fortress was raised by Thibault the Cheater with Xe century. At the 13th century, the castle is rebuilt by the family of Châtillon. Their last descendant, Guy II of Blois-Châtillon, sells in 1392 Blois with Louis of Orleans, brother of Charles VI. In 1429, before its departure to raise the Head office of Orleans, Jeanne d' Arc is blessed in the vault of the castle by the archbishop of Rheims. When Louis of Orleans is assassinated in Paris on order of the duke of Burgundy, its widow, Valentine Visconti, share food in Blois where it dies out the following year, after having made engrave on the walls of the castle: “ Nothing is to me more, more is not to me nothing ”. The son of Louis of Orleans, Charles, with his return in 1440 of captivity in England, fact of the castle of Blois an arts center; it launches a contest of poetry there where is illustrated François Villon with his Ballade of the contest of Blois .
Of the fortress of this period remains in the current castle only the big room, dated from the 13th century, and the cylindrical tower of Foix.

June 27th 1462, Louis, wire of Charles of Orleans, is born with the castle from Blois. He becomes king de France in 1498; the medieval castle of the counts de Blois becomes royal residence and Louis makes his principal residence of it. At the beginning of the Years 1500 (between 1498 and 1503), Louis XII undertakes with Anne of Brittany (her wife since 1499) a rebuilding of the castle in a late style Gothic under the direction of the architect Colin Biart, and the creation of a garden Renaissance disappeared today. It also builds the Saint-Calais vault.

Claude of France, girl of Louis XII and Anne of Brittany, marries in 1514 his/her cousin François of Angouleme, great-grandson of Louis of Orleans. It assembles on the throne in 1515 and Claude of France, with the intention to leave the Château of Amboise, then refurnishes the castle of Blois to install the Court there. This same year, François Ier launches the construction of a new wing, style Renaissance, and begins there one of the most important collections of books of the time. The work management is given to the Italian architect Dominique de Cortone with which one owes the monumental staircase. But after the death of his wife to the castle, in 1524, construction stops; François Ier forsakes the castle of Blois to the profit of the Château of Fontainebleau where it sends the impressive library to found the National library .

The castle of Blois remains the main home of its successors and in particular of François II and Charles IX. It is in Blois that their brother Henri III convenes the General states in 1576: those are held in the big room now called room of the States . Then Henri III must convene the General states of 1588-1589. In the castle, in its room on the second floor, it makes kill on December 23rd 1588 its enemy, the duke of Own way; the brother of this one, the cardinal of Lorraine, is assassinated the following day. Then the castle is occupied by its successor Henri IV. With died of this last, it becomes place of exile for its widow Marie de Médicis, and is inhabited by Richelieu. Relegated to Blois in 1617 by his/her son Louis XIII, the queen-mother escapes from the castle on February 22nd 1619 using a rung and cable ladder, following what it ends up being reconciled with her son.

In 1626, Louis XIII allocates the county of Blois to his/her brother Gaston of Orleans as a wedding gift. In 1635, a new attempt to develop the castle is born with the implementation of a new wing drawn by François Mansart. But of the financial problems stop in 1638 the realization of the project and Gaston, not being able to reside at it, is constrained to occupy the wing François Ier (which would have been destroyed if the project had been led to its term). Modifications of the royal apartments go back to this time. With died of Gaston in 1660, the castle is abandoned.

At the time of the Revolution, the castle has been with the abandonment for 130 years, and the revolutionists anxious to make disappear any vestige from the royalty plunder it by emptying it of its pieces of furniture, statues and other accessories. The state of the building is such as its demolition is even considered, however its transformation into barracks in 1788 saves the building of disappearance. In 1841, under the reign of Louis-Philippe, the castle is classified historic building thanks to the action of Prosper Mérimée. Felix Duban is in charge in 1846 of the restoration of the royal apartments of the wing François Ier; it associates major colors (red and blue) with gold. The castle is then transformed into museum.

The castle is today the property of the town of Blois. Gilles Clement, landscape designer, was charged to work on the park. To make live the castle, a Sound-and-light using the voices of Robert Hossein, Pierre Arditi or Fabrice Luchini, written by Alain Decaux and put in music by Eric Demarsan, was conceived in the years 1990: Ainsi Blois is told to you… .

Structure and interior decoration

The castle of Blois, such as it can be admired nowadays, is mainly made up of three wings where the styles Gothic, Renaissance and baroque mix, even if traces remain of the castle of the Middle Ages.

Medieval castle

Built by the count Thibaut VI before 1220, the room of the States is the oldest civil room Gothic of France, and an architectural element marking of the Gothic of the 13th century. Panelled, it is made up of two naves, separated by a file from six columns supporting the two barrel vaults juxtaposed with the frame in oak. The painted decoration is the work of Felix Duban towards 1861, but takes as a starting point the polychromy of use at the 13th century. Room of justice under the counts of Blois, it shelters the General states in 1576 and 1588. In 2007, it is in the course of restoration, in particular in order to preserve important traces of polychromy. It is located at the northern end of the François wing Ist.

The concise museum, coupled in the room of the States, in the old kitchens of François Ier, gathers the sculptures of 16th and 17th centuries of the various wings of the castle, the product of excavations of the Loir-et-Cher, the objects coming from the headland of the castle at the time medieval, a unit the Carolingian period, as well as the mouldings and the studies out of plaster realized by Felix Duban.

The tower of Foix, located on the other hand, close to the Gaston wing of Orleans, is a vestige of the fortifications of the 13th century. More characteristic of a medieval fortress , it offers a panorama on the town of Blois, the Loire and the Saint Nicolas's Day church.

Wing Louis XII

One penetrates in the castle by the wing Louis XII, remarkable by his apparatus of brick reds chained of white stones. The entry is surmounted by the equestrian statue of the sovereign (copy carried out at the 19th century of a lost original) presented higher. This wing, built between 1498 and 1503, is of Gothic style as can attest it the Mouluration S, the Trilobe S, the Pinacle S of the attic windows. Certain elements, like a small candelabrum, are however already of Renaissance style.

A corridor serves the various parts, in order to avoid having to traverse all the parts in row to cross the wing, which is an innovation compared to the fitting of the medieval castle.

The wing contains the museum of the Art schools of the town of Blois since 1869. The eight rooms of the gallery present a choice of paintings and sculptures going from 16th to the 19th century as well as the important collection of Ferronnerie (legacy Houssaye-Frank) and of iron work. The gallery gathers a whole of French and Flemish tapestries of 16th and 17th centuries. The chimneys were remade with emblematic of Louis XII and his wife, according to famous the Livre of hours of the queen; intended for the count de Chambord, they are the work of Louis Delcros. The cabinet of the portraits contains tables of 16th and 17th centuries coming from the castles of Saint-Germain-Bowsprit in the Hollow one and of Beauregard. In a room of 17th and 18th centuries, a series of fifty terra cotta medallions is preserved of Jean-Baptiste Nini.

The Saint-Calais vault is located at the end of the wing Louis XII, in the interior court of the castle. There remains today of this private oratory of the king devoted in 1508 only the Gothic chorus, the nave having been destroyed by Mansart during work of the Gaston wing of Orleans. Modern stained glasses of max Ingrand, going back to 1957, evoke several figures of the history.

The gallery Charles of Orleans, stuck to the Saint-Calais vault, was formerly twice longer, but was, like the vault, destroyed partly at the 17th century. Built in the middle of the 15th century, it is about the first building in which the stone and the brick are employed simultaneously. The gallery is carried by very flattened arcades in handle of basket. Columns with the barrels rhombuses, stamped flower of royal lilies and hermine, alternate with pillars whose drawing superimposes circle and square.

Wing François Ier

In the wing François I {{er}}, of Renaissance style, architecture and the ornamentation is marked by the Italian influence. The central element of this wing is the monumental staircase, of type screw out-work. The staircase, “excavated like an ivory of China” according to Balzac, cover of fine sculptures, opens by broad bays on the court of the castle. Its paved vault, of helicoid form, supported by external rectangular buttresses make of it a recurring symbol of French architecture to the Rebirth.

With the reverse of the wing, accessible since the gallery from the Queen, the frontage of the Cabins is, characterized by a succession of not-communicating niches. These cabins, although inspired by the frontages of Bramante in the Vatican, show in their construction some gallicisms (arcs in handle of basket, schedules irregular, works in overhang etc). This frontage gave formerly on the gardens created by Louis XII.

Side court, the frontage is decorated windows with pilasters with the chapitaux Italianists. The cornice at the top of this frontage present, superimposed, a series of reasons for the first Rebirth.

In spite of its apparent homogeneity, the wing François Ier includes the room of the States, on the left of the frontage of the Cabins.

The tiling of the gallery of the Queen, created by Felix Duban out of terra cotta glazed on a model of the 15th century, was restored at the end of the 20th century.

The royal apartments located in this wing were restored. They had been reconstituted by Felix Duban in the romantic spirit of its time. Indeed, Gaston of Orleans destroyed a quarter of the wing François Ier, whose private apartments of François Ist Felix Duban took as a starting point the principle according to which the public apartments gave on the court of the castle and the private apartments on the gardens now disappeared.

One finds in this wing the cabinet of Marie de Médicis or studiolo , in which wood panels dissimulate four wall cupboards with secret mechanism, which gave him the name of room of the secrecies . The wood panels are of origin but the chimney as well as the ceiling were recreated by Felix Duban. The 237 carved panels of candelabra to Italian date from the years 1520. The wall cupboards were not intended to dissimulate poisons as certain romantic authors claim it, but were used to expose works of art and books invaluable.

The room of the Queen, formerly gallery of the apartments of François Ier, became the royal room of Catherine de Médicis which died there on January 5th 1589. The monogram of Henri II and Catherine de Médicis made up of a H and of two C interlaced is omnipresent in this part.

The room of the captains of the guards, formed by the meeting of two parts, is decorated of two chimneys to the Renaissance decoration, on which are visible the salamander of François Ier and the hermine of Claude of France. The room of the guards, as for it, was built on both sides medieval curtain of the building. The windows are devoted to the history of the currency and produced earthenware néo-Rebirth with Blois at the 19th century.

The oratory, panelled, takes as a starting point that of the library of the Connétable of Montmorency to the Château of Écouen towards 1550. The stained glasses date from the 19th century.

On the first floor the new cabinet, reconstituted by Felix Duban according to a fragment representing appears a siren. On the balcony the painted woodworks of a cabinet of the 17th century remain. One also finds the Duban gallery, in which are exposed drawings, engravings and objects evoking the work of the architect, as well as the room of the Own ways, sheltering a collection of tables introducing the principal characters and the tragic events related to the wars of religion. Many painters historicists of the 19th century were inspired by the assassination of the duke of Own way. The room of the council brings together movable rich person carried out at the 19th century in the Renaissance style, pointing out the princely luxury of the 16th century.

The room of the king is that in which the legend wants that the duke of Own way died, being thrown to the foot of the bed of the king after being struck by eight hired killers. To evoke the king, Duban voluntarily enriched by gold the decoration of the room.

The Castle-Renault tower, opened with the public per good weather, reveals a panorama on the old royal gardens where remain the Anne house of Brittany and the orangery.

Gaston wing of Orleans

The realization of the wing Gaston of Orleans was entrusted to François Mansart between 1635 and 1638. It is of traditional style. This wing occupies the bottom of the court, vis-a-vis the wing Louis XII. The central fore-part comprises three spans where one can distinguish the doric superposition of the orders , ionic and Corinthian.

François Mansart built there a main staircase surmounted by two superimposed cupolas, decorated allegorical sculptures.

The wing shelters a room of history of the castle and rooms intended for temporary exhibitions and congresses.

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