Chenonceau Castle (France)

Located in the department of Indre-et-Loire, Chenonceau Castle is the private historic monument the most visited in France. Also called the "Château des Dames" (as it was built and furnished almost exclusively by women), Chenonceau was built by Katherine Briçonnet in 1513 and decorated and enhanced by Diane de Poitiers, Catherine de Medicis, before being rescued by madame Dupin during the French revolution.

Chenonceau castle Loire to the historic and patrimonial wealth extraordinary.

The castle whose characteristic is to straddle the Cher, consists of a square main building with a central hallway which distributes four rooms on each other. You will discover on the ground floor chapel, Poitiers Diane's bedroom and workroom Catherine de Medici, the room Francis I and Louis XIV living room and upstairs a beautiful gallery overlooking the Cher.

The richness of its collections such as its Renaissance furniture, tapestries of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries his paintings of masters including Rubens, reinforce the attractiveness of the monument.

The Château de Chenonceau is a historical monument since 7 November 1962.

Chenonceau castle and magnificent gardens

Beyond its architecture and its furnishings and collections, the Château de Chenonceau, has magnificent gardens.

It is under the leadership of Catherine de Medici as the original gardens that boils down to a very small space and a vegetable garden converted from 1547. Considering the outrageous garden of the Court, the queen decides to conduct a much more ambitious overhaul. She especially realize the famous parterre known as Diane de Poitiers garden and planted many species on the right bank of the Cher, well protected from river floods. What makes the richness of the garden at the time, this is both its geometry, but also present varieties that will flower beds, to the fruit tree in the bush, while the borders of alleys dotted his violets and strawberries.

The ambitious development does not stop the fact and Catherine de Medici also develop what will be called the "Garden of curiosities". It will host an aviary, a barn, a menagerie, an artificial cave and the famous fountain of the rock.

Château de Chenonceau, a visit is required

You'll understand what Chateau Loire is one of the jewels of French heritage, breathing in its development of femininity, sophistication and determination of its various initiators.

To honor these exceptional women and to all its prestigious residents or occupants of passage, a room of the castle "room of the five queens," is also dedicated to them. Mary Margaret of France, Louise de Lorraine, Elisabeth of Austria and Elisabeth of France, are being honored.