A chateau that looks like a medieval castle, functions as a hunting lodge and supposedly is so grand it could rival Versailles? Chambord is so much more!
If you want to visit yourself then you want to check out the Chateau website: https://www.chambord.org/en/
This image shows how the double helix stairs work: https://www.activemetal.com.au/2018/08/03/active_progress-uts-central-double-helix-staircase/
This video gives you an idea how you walk the stairs without meeting someone coming the other way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0wD388aD1E
Check out the Destination: History podcast to learn more about this and other destinations.
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https://destinationhistorypod.com/episodes/chambord
First published: 1 May 2022
Music: Tegan Finlay
CHAPTERS:
0:00 – Intro
0:48 – Building the Chateau
6:04 – Parts of the Chateau
12:12 – The park and gardens
23:19 – Visiting the Chateau
26:34 – Outro
Welcome to destination history where we tackle interesting and fascinating places and take a stroll through the history behind them our destination today sees us at a French Chateau with a whole lot to offer from the mystery surrounding the architect to the clear influences of a great mind to the
Significant role it still plays today come check out the place that is said to rival that of Versa join me as we take a look at today’s destination Chateau de Shambo The Chateau that can be found at shambour is such a beautiful place and is known to be the largest castle of Leo
Valley as a symbol of the French Renaissance as well as of power for the ruler who constructed it shambo’s brilliant architectural features really can go up against the likes of Vera and it’s those same architectural features that may confuse the average visitor as to the chateau’s original purpose even
Though the Chateau looks like a medieval castle it’s really all just for show its purpose since its conception was always as a hunting lodge ah the French and their display days of wealth and power and this is where we first meet Francis the he’d spent his youth gallivanting
Through France and developed a keen passion for hunting don’t we all so when he ended up becoming King in 1515 he decided what he really needed was a good oldfashioned Castle surrounded by an amply stocked Forest so that he could hop on by and go hunting whenever the feelings struck him
Hence while you’ll find Chateau de Shambo smack bang in the middle of the bolognia Forest right up against the river that goes by the cassan now as we know the French like killing multiple birds with one stone so while Francis has his full-time hunting lodge it had to not only function like a
Hunting lodge but it also had to look like something worthy of a French King and that’s how we end up with a medieval facade but as much effort was put into how the damn thing looked so too was there an immense amount of effort put into the hunting grounds surrounding the
Castle Francis was super Keen to have the best hunting estate around so he bought up some large tracks of land and ended up having plenty of space to wander through with over 2500 hectares the construction of the chatau started only a couple years after Francis was crowned and from 1519
Through to 1547 construction was underway but issues plagued this construction site from the beginning and poor Francis never saw his hunting lodge finished at least not officially that would go to a bloke we met over at Versa the Sun King Louie the 14th known for his love of the visually extreme he’s
The one who we can credit for completing the castle and making some changes so that it functioned as a proper Chateau once finished the Chateau was known to impress here’s what Charles I the Holy Roman Emperor at the time thought of the place a summing up of human
Industry and the place looks so perfect that the kings that came after were pretty reluctant to make their own changes especially to the exterior although we do know that Louis the 14th added in some French G Gardens in the immediate area around the Chateau man that guy sure did love his Gardens Louis
The 15th was known to Bunker down at Shambo through most of the winter so he made the place as comfortable as possible adding wood paneling paret flooring and a couple of false ceilings and then as we head into 1745 Shambo is out of Royal hands and is the permanent
Residence for the marelle Dax who wanted to Cozy up the place a little so he added in some furnishings and created some nice paths through the gardens and wider estate but as with anything that had any connection to the monarchy The Chateau was stripped of anything valuable including its prized game throughout the
French Revolution and after Napoleon’s General had done what he would with it the Chateau found itself with a for S sign out the front in 1819 thankfully an exiled Duke who went by the Duke de Bordeaux ended up with a chatau in his hand in 1821 but due to being in Exile didn’t
Actually get a chance to see the place in the flesh until quite a while later in 1871 and despite not having visited until a good 50 years after he purchased it he would go around introducing himself as the comp the Shambo that’s the count of Shambo for those a bit
Rusty on their French in order to make things work financially the count opened Shambo up to the public but it was clear the neglect had taken its toll thankfully as the second half of the 19th century rolled around extensive work was done to restore a vast majority of the Chateau to working
Order and then in 1930 the chatau found itself in the capable hands of the French estate and those restoration and renovation Works have haven’t really stopped since so as we already know the chatau was designed as a hunting Retreat and Shambo is unique in that it looks very
Much like a medieval castle even though when it was built there was no need for any kind of military defense which tells us that the medieval facade was purely to impress the guests of the king and to show off his wealth and power basically
It was the king saying look at me I can build a medieval castle and use it as a hunting lodge because I’m the king and I can do whatever I want even if it doesn’t make a liquor sense the center of the Chateau is a square keep which
Also goes by Don John or those who don’t speak any french Each corner of the square has a round Tower with a conical roof and a lantern on the top you know in case you’re struggling to find your way home after dark what’s interesting about this Central Square is that as
Well as a four corner Towers it also has a central tower complete with its own flying buttresses and it certainly stands Above the Rest at 56 M tall naturally our chatau has wings and a circuit wall with its own circular Towers but these circular towers are many at only one story high what’s
Really intriguing about the chatau Des Shambo is that it was being built at a time when Italian Renaissance Architects were trying out a whole heap of new things making Shambo quite Fancy with its several Innovations for our first Innovation we need to look no further than the medich
Villa at pojo wakano the similarity here being the layout of the central keep which when viewed from above will look very similar to a Greek cross identified by each arm being twice its width and who was the brilliant archit Tech genius who laid out the Chateau in this manner
Well that my fellow destination historians is the mystery the chateau’s architect’s identity has remained hidden a couple of names have been put forward throughout the years but none have seemed to catch on the reason for this mystery can be found by the fact that there appears to be no paperwork related
To the construction of the Chateau usually you may find some receipts PL PL or letters that speak about the construction of a royal building but there really is nothing that can be found by anyone for Shambo it’s thought that the records were either dispersed or destroyed for some reason that has
Been lost to us at the end of the 18th century so I guess we’ll never really know the second Innovation we will Marvel at today is the double spiral staircase which you’ll find Rising through the center of the keep what’s really interesting about this staircase is that it really is an engineering
Masterpiece and a truly revolutionary design and experience for going up and down stairs clearly inspired by Leonardo da Vinci though it’s unlikely that Leo was the one who built the thing as the chat’s construction started about 6 months after the bloke had died although side note Francis the first did invite
Leo to live in France where he would be first painter architect and engineer of the king not a bad job title if I do say so myself but back to the stairs at hand so the genius in the stairs is that there are not one but two helical stairs
That twist around each other and what’s truly crazy about these twisting twin stairs is that you can walk up them without ever meeting anyone going down so the stairs twist in a full 360° between every floor meaning that you’re able to keep those going the other way
In view but you’ll never actually meet how crazy is that it can be a little hard to wrap your head around so if you’re struggling check out the website where I found a cool diagram that hopefully shows you a little clearer how the thing works you won’t be able to miss the
Italian inspiration in the classic ornamentations in the window frames and moldings which really do up the fanciness of the exterior facade and the top of the chatau isn’t all about sloping roofs there are walkways and Terraces you can venture out on to for a pretty awesome view of the park and
Forest all up the Chateau is 426 rooms 83 staircases and 282 fireplaces with 200 ornate chimneys to go along with them these days most of the rooms are pretty much empty but about 60 of the royal suits have been refurbished and are open to visitors if you’ve got your
Glasses on you just might be able to spot one of the hundreds of emblems of Francis I here and there in the shape of the letter F or the salamander the salamander is a unique animal it’s a small amphibian that loves water just as much as it loves land and
Is what Francis the first chose as his emblem along with the motto I eat the good fire I put out the bad this ties into the belief that salamanders are resistant to fire although during its period of neglect Gustaf La a French novelist noted somewhat sadly on his
Visit to shano that the spider weaves its web on the salamander of Francis I and yet it is because of Francis and his salamander that we can stare in Wonder at The chatau Still Standing today even with the Majesty of its chatau Shambo is probably best known for
Its Park and Gardens it turns out the place is the largest W and inclosed park in all of Europe spanning across about 13,5 500 Acres which happens to be the same area as Paris so you’re in for a good long walk if you visit throughout the Middle Ages the bongia forest where
The national estate of Shambo sits was the property of the counts of buah but by 1498 it had become a crown property and therefore a royal domain and seeing that the king always needs more land the bounds of the estate expanded with Francis the annexing 6,200 Acres of
Farmland to add to his growing estate but Francis was fully aware that he would need help maintaining his ever growing land and so in 1542 he appointed some Royal captaincies who were tasked with ensuring with the utmost Vigor the maintenance and conservation of the shrubs and bushes of the black and red
Beasts of this park for our pleasure and pastime of hunting quite a bit of responsib and with great responsibility comes the abuse of power and these captains to the king were no different even though the breaches in the walls to get to some of the good quality Royal Game reduced most
Offenses were severely punished with locals often being abused which eventually led to Louis the 14th ending the Royal captaincy of shamor in 1777 but before all of this Francis the first main source of anxiety was sorting out the Kon river which crossed straight through the estate the Kon was pretty
Wild with many a marsh popping up along its banks and around the Chateau forcing Jac Desu to common in 1576 the conson in no way echoed the magnificence of the Chateau and so Francis thought that the only way to control the flow of water was to divert some water all the way
Over from the leor but nothing ever really happened which may explain why Shambo didn’t have any official French Renaissance Gardens although rumors and a couple of 17th century diagrams tell us that there may have been some small gardens in the immediate vicinity of the Chateau although there were most likely small veggie
Gardens in 1645 the Shambo estate finally stopped growing when the the Duke of orans finished the perimeter wall giving the estate its size that it still holds today 13,500 acres and this wall is not small it’s actually a good 32 km long and about 2.5 M High to keep all those Mis
Creant out it was mainly constructed of limestone and as the years rolled on doors were carved out of the wall to allow people to come and go once our old friend Louis the 14th had come to power we start to see his mark on the chatau
Take place in the form of some good old-fashioned French Gardens we know from Versa that he loved a good Garden he even brought in his old mate Jew hadn Manar to get started on two form Gardens for out the front of the chatau which got underway around 1684 with the Kon River eventually
Canalized in an effort to control its flow of water we get to 1745 where Louis the 15th has given Shambo to the Marshal general of France at the time a Maurice desx even though Maurice was around for only a couple of years he wasted no time in improving the garden with some good
Quality trees a 1751 infantry tells us that there were 250 pineapple trees 121 orange trees one lemon tree and one lime tree plenty of fruit for everyone but they call greatest States Shambo suffered while the people revolted and the garden that had been lovingly created over a 100 years or so suffered
From a lack of Maintenance as we come into the 19th century and the early 20th century the estate fell into the hands of Henry Duke of Bordeaux who also happened to be the grandson of Charles I 10th now Henry wasn’t much of a gardener so he kept
What remained of the simple garden the best he could he had brought in a landscape architect that went by AI duen to replant the whole thing but this never ended up happening as we head into the mid 20th century we start to see some movement in getting a garden back
With part divisions and some trees and bushes being planted but by 1970 this had all disappeared with just a nice big lawn in its place but perhaps this was so they could start with a clean select as 2 years later the moates were refilled and in 2016 the replanting of
The 18th Century foral Gardens layout had commenced the project was overseen by the general manager of the estate John Danville who had about a 100 people get involv in replanting the formal Gardens and so the gardens that Louis the 14th loved so much were restored to be almost
Identical to what the king would have seen as he looked out his Shambo window after a good 7 months of hard work the gardens were officially open to the public in March 2017 and you can still get amongst them today now that we know a good deal about
The gardens let’s get into the fascination that is the Shambo Park and Forest so Stags have always been a local to the area of their state and it’s probably this reason why Francis the first was drawn to the place these days you’ll see many a stag and probably a
Boar as well there’s actually a couple of different species you’ll see wandering about including the rare Row D that were introduced to the area in 1950 and there’s even quite a few species of forest animals that are being watched closely to ensure conservation of the area and the species in fact the
Range of species found on the Shambo estate make it a great place to study FAA in their natural habitat now the park is highly managed and it has to be especially with its large animal population and no apex predators to keep it in check there were even strict rules about hunting back
When Francis the first was in power which really did play to his favor with the king and the nobility being the only ones allowed to hunt or even bear arms during peace time and then of course the French Revolution democratized hunting but it may shock a couple of our Nation
Historians to hear that hunting still does take place quite regularly on the shambor estate and it actually plays a really important role in managing the numbers of animals if the deer and Bs were left to their own devices they would decimate the forest area and with the population of Stags and dos growing
By about 30% each year it would get to the point where the vegetation wouldn’t have a chance to recover meaning that there would be no food left for any of them so in order to keep the animal numbers in line with the hosting capacity of the environment humans need
To play the role of the Predator to keep everything in balance and of course like all good conservationists some Stags are also caught to be transported to inhabit and increase the population in other sites in fact because Shambo has such a high population of Stags and Doe’s almost a
Hundred of them are caught each year to be moved to other parts of France and wider Europe to increase the population there making Shambo the site to go to if you want to recover your population of wild Deer Park is not just managed for the wild deer but forestry and Landscape
Management also take a very close look at protecting the biodiversity of the place which really means ensuring the forest is maintained and preserved wood is collected when necessary and also making it a good spot for visitors and involving them in the process in fact a whole third of the estate is a natural
Resinous wood so if you ever need natural French resin you know where to go one of the main ways the forest is maintained is about every 10 years when the forest has reached maturity there will be a thinning out to allow New Growth to form and an influx of native
Animals and because the canalization of the Kon didn’t solve all the marshy problems about 20 of the remaining marshes are also drained every year or so to avoid them getting too full so as you can see a real amount of thought and effort goes into the conservation of the
Natural forest and park on the estate and the uses of Shambo just keep growing because of how well the whole place has been preserved it turns out it’s pretty good good for scientific research in fact the goal within the next 10 years is to become one of the top 10 sites for
Studying large wild ulet which are basically the wild D the national reserve for hunting and wild forer is leading the research but as it turns out France is actually really well suited for it the shambora state is large enough to preserve the natural behavior of the animals whilst having that wall
To protect them from the outside industrialized world so we can thank Francis I and his unsatiable need for hunting because there just simply isn’t any possible way that we could recreate such a large enclosed environment for this kind of scientific research within France and there’s no way you can find a
Space as large as Paris to do it in so not only is the Shambo Chateau a great preservation of a hunting lodge masquerade as a medieval Palace and the coming and going of its Gardens it plays an incredibly important part in the study of large wild and Native fora
Within Europe and the importance of it remaining so with preservation and conservation cannot be overstated so if you’re into everything we’ve discussed so far you might be thinking how do I get myself over to France to check this place out well you’re in luck because the chatau is
Open to the public so when you next find yourself in the area you’ll be free to wander around checking out the Stables the gardens the museum that’s been dedicated to the comp to Shambo and the exhibition galleries you might even be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a
16th century tapestry or two and if it’s all the talk of a preserved Forest that got you all excited you can visit there as well there are many trails and bike paths CS that allow you to experience the forest in all its Majesty in fact the shambora estate was one of the first
Places to install observation spots in 1969 to watch the animals without disturbing them and today you’ll find at least 11 of them that are open to the public some are pretty bloody big being able to hold around 50 people While others are really small with room for
Only about three or four these obs ation platforms give the viewer a unique opportunity to view a wild animal in its natural habitat which can be quite a unique experience and definitely different to viewing an animal in a zoo but Shambo also doesn’t live entirely in the past discover shambour
Is an augmented reality that can be experienced in 3D when visiting make sure to pick up a hytad an interactive digital tablet with which gives you some pretty immersive experiences that I’m told are nothing short of spectacular and if you’re flush with cash then you can’t really look any
Further than staying directly next door to the chatau the hotel relay the shambour is a fourstar hotel that opened in March 2018 literally 50 m from the main Castle there are 55 rooms to choose from making your visit super easy on the whole travel time and of course we can’t
Go past the gift shop without popping our heads in and you might be pleasantly surprised about how many products are manufactured from the natural resources of the park sign me up for some of that French resin it was actually just a couple of years ago in 2019 that the
Chadow celebrated the 500th anniversary of its construction complete with wine produced on the estate it seems the Shambo estate has done pretty much everything including being on the initial list of historic monuments in France all the way back in 1840 and finding itself added to the UNESCO world heritage list in
1981 it certainly is a Renaissance chatau that has stood the test of time and of course last year 2021 saw the Chateau celebrate the 200 100th anniversary of it being open to the public as it continues to be and hopefully will continue for many a year to
Come you know the drill if you want more exciting stuff check out the website for images and links to more cool things over at destination hisp pod.com and if you want to hear about a particular place or building then send through your suggestion by whatever means possible and it will get its very
Own episode here on destination history thanks for listening stay safe out there see you next Time