The story of Château de Chambord

At the heart of this château is a staircase with a secret: its two spirals climb all three floors without ever meeting. Some suggest Leonardo da Vinci designed it, though that has not been confirmed. Francis I had construction begin on 6 September 1519, intending a hunting lodge, and work went on until 1547. Chambord is the largest château in the Loire Valley, with 440 rooms, 282 fireplaces and 84 staircases.

Its roof bristles with eleven kinds of towers and three types of chimneys; the writer Henry James said they looked more like the spires of a city than parts of a single building. By September 1526, 1,800 workers were busy here. Yet the king spent barely seven weeks here in total, and because the château stood unfurnished, all the furniture had to be brought for each hunting trip.

The wooded park around it covers 52.5 square kilometres and is enclosed by a wall 31 kilometres long. In 2007 the château welcomed 700,000 visitors.