Chenonceaux, Bléré, Tours, Indre-et-Loire, Centre, France
The Château de Chenonceaux was built on the site of an old mill on the River Cher, sometime before its first mention in writing in the 11th century. The current manor was designed by Philibert Delorme. The original manor was torched in 1411 to punish owner Jean Marques for an act of sedition. He rebuilt a castle and fortified mill on the site in the 1430s. Subsequently, his indebted heir Pierre Marques sold the castle to Thomas Bohier, Chamberlain for King Charles VIII of France in 1513. Bohier destroyed the existing castle and built an entirely new residence between 1515 and 1521. Eventually, the château was seized from Bohier's son by François I and after François' death in 1547, Henry II offered the château as a gift to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers who became fervently attached to the château and its view along the river. Set along the banks of the river, but buttressed from flooding by stone terraces, the exquisite gardens were laid out in four triangles. In 1864, Daniel Wilson, a Scotsman who had made a fortune installing gaslights throughout Paris, bought the château for his daughter. In 1913, the Menier family, famous for their chocolates, bought the château and still own it to this day. During World War I the gallery was used as a hospital ward; during the Second War it was a means of escaping from the Nazi occupied zone on one side of the River Cher to the "free" Vichy zone on the opposite bank. An architectural mixture of late Gothic and early Renaissance, Château de Chenonceau and its gardens are open to the public. Other than the Royal Palace of Versailles, Chenonceau is the most visited château in France. (source: Wikipedia)
Size: 5100px × 3391px
Location: Chenonceaux, Bléré, Tours, Indre-et-Loire, Centre, France
Photo credit: © Olga Gajewska / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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