Chambord castle is the largest in the Loire valley and one of the most famous in France. Appearance he owes his Royal passion, besides it is considered that its architecture had a hand in Leonardo da Vinci.

The construction of the castle began in 1519 by order of the handsome and guira of Francis I, who wished to be closer to his mistress, the Countess Claude de toury from the sort of Rohan, who lived nearby. The location for the castle was chosen by the water, on a bend of the river Cosson. History has not preserved the name of the architect who performed the whim of the king, but tradition ascribes the participation in the design of Leonardo da Vinci.

It is difficult to say to what extent this great artist, scientist, engineer was involved in the project: in France under Royal patronage Leonardo appeared in 1516, and died 2 may 1519. But the sweeping staircase of two intertwined spirals bears the imprint of genius: its branches nested within each other so that ascending and descending on it can't meet.

The construction of the castle was one of the greatest engineering enterprises of the French Renaissance. For he brought a 220 tons of stone, the river was taken away to a special ditch, marshy ground scored twelve-oak piles, on which lay the Foundation. The rectangular castle built around a Central reinforced object, which by tradition of the middle Ages called the donjon. Inside the donjon – 5 residential floors. The length of the facade of the castle – 156 meters, it has 426 rooms, 77 staircases, 282 fireplaces.

Francis I have time to hunt in the vicinity of Chambord only a few times (mostly in the company of court beauties). In the future, the monarchs are not too interested in the castle, Louis XIII gave his brother Gaston d'orleans. Louis XIV undertook the reconstruction of Chambord, and it is here on 14 October 1670 the great Moliere was first successfully introduced to the king his "Bourgeois Gentilhomme". Later in the castle lived the deposed Polish king Stanislaw Leszczynski. In the revolution Chambord was looted, Napoleon gave it to Marshal Berthier, during the Franco-Prussian war there was a hospital.

In 1930, the castle was bought by the French state, and in 1939, five days before the Declaration of war with Germany, the Louvre Museum workers launched an operation to smuggle the artistic treasures in the countryside. In Chambord among other works went priceless Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. The Nazis found them, after the war they returned unharmed to the Louvre.

The castle was repeatedly dangers: 22 June 1944, right on his lawn, crashed American bomber B-24, in 1945, a fire partially destroyed the roof of the donjon. In 1947 work began on transforming the castle into a tourist object.

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 appreciate the amazing tapestries "the Hunt of king Francis" relating to the first quarter of XVII century. These works created before the advent of the famous Parisian Royal Tapestry manufactory.