The Royal Château of Blois (, ) is a

château A château (, ; plural: châteaux) is a manor house, or palace, or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking re ...

located in the city center of

Blois Blois ( ; ) is a commune and the capital city of Loir-et-Cher Departments of France, department, in Centre-Val de Loire, France, on the banks of the lower Loire river between Orléans and Tours. With 45,898 inhabitants by 2019, Blois is the mos ...

Loir-et-Cher Loir-et-Cher (, ) is a Departments of France, department in the Centre-Val de Loire Regions of France, region of France. It is named after two rivers which run through it, the Loir in its northern part and the Cher (river), Cher in its southern p ...

, in the

Loire Valley The Loire Valley (, ), spanning , is a valley located in the middle stretch of the Loire river in central France, in both the administrative regions Pays de la Loire and Centre-Val de Loire. The area of the Loire Valley comprises about . It is r ...

, France. In addition to having been the residence of the

Counts of Blois During the Middle Ages, the counts of Blois were among the most powerful vassals of the King of France. This title of nobility seems to have been created in 832 by Emperor Louis the Pious for William, the youngest son of Adrian, Count of Orléa ...

and some French kings,

Joan of Arc Joan of Arc ( ; ; – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the Coronation of the French monarch, coronation of Charles VII o ...

also went there by 1429 to be blessed by the

Archbishop of Reims The Archdiocese of Reims or Rheims (; French language, French: ''Archidiocèse de Reims'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastic territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France. Erected as a diocese around 250 by Sixtus of Reims, the diocese w ...

before departing with her army to drive against the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

, who conquered

Orléans Orléans (,"Orleans"
(US) and County of Blois The County of Blois was a feudal principality centred on Blois, south of Paris, France. It was created just after king Clovis I conquered Roman Gaul around AD 500. Between the 8th and the 13th centuries, it was amongst the most powerful vassal ...

up to 1397, then the

Duchy of Orléans The Duchy of Orléanais () is a former royal duchy, which was created during reign of Hugh Capet by elevating the former County of Orléans. In 1498, as part of a centralisation of France under Louis XII, the duchy was dissolved and replaced by ...

, and the

Kingdom of France The Kingdom of France is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the Middle Ages, medieval and Early modern France, early modern period. It was one of the most powerful states in Europe from th ...

between 1498 and 1544. It comprises several buildings, whose construction began in the 13th century and ended in the 17th century. Four different architectural styles are represented within the rectangular edifice, including: some remainings of the 13th-century medieval fortress, the Louis XII Gothic-style wing, the Francis I Renaissance-style wing, and the Gaston of Orléans Classical-style wing. In total, there are 564 rooms, including 100 bedrooms with a

fireplace A fireplace or hearth is a structure made of brick, stone or metal designed to contain a fire. Fireplaces are used for the relaxing ambiance they create and for heating a room. Modern fireplaces vary in heat efficiency, depending on the design. ...

in each, and 75 staircases (although only 23 were used frequently). The Musée des Beaux-Arts de Blois (Museum of Fine Arts of Blois), located in the Louis XII wing, presents collections of painting, sculpture, and decorative arts (including numerous tapestries) dating from the 16th to the 19th century. It was created in 1850.

History

Counts of Blois

In 854, the Blois

castle A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...

, known as ''Blisum castrum'', was attacked by

Viking Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

cheftain

Hastein Hastein (Old Norse: ''Hásteinn'', also recorded as ''Hastingus'', ''Anstign'', ''Haesten'', ''Hæsten'', ''Hæstenn'' or ''Hæsting'' and alias ''Alsting''Jones, Aled (2003). ''Transactions of the Royal Historical Society: Sixth Series'' Cambridge ...

. In the 10th and 11th centuries, the

, who also owned

Chartres Chartres () is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Eure-et-Loir Departments of France, department in the Centre-Val de Loire Regions of France, region in France. It is located about southwest of Paris. At the 2019 census, there were 1 ...

and

Champagne Champagne (; ) is a sparkling wine originated and produced in the Champagne wine region of France under the rules of the appellation, which demand specific vineyard practices, sourcing of grapes exclusively from designated places within it, spe ...

, joined together to rebuild the fortress. Count Theobald I raised a so-called "big tower" and by the end of the 12th century, the Counts' contributions were finished by building the St-Sauveur

Collegiate Church In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons, a non-monastic or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, headed by a dignitary bearing ...

. The "Estates General Room" (' in French), built in the beginning of the 13th century, is one of the oldest seignoral rooms preserved in France, and is also the largest remaining civilian

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, a Germanic people **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Gothic alphabet, an alphabet used to write the Gothic language ** Gothic ( ...

room of the country. This room was used as a court of justice by the Counts of Blois and again in 1576 and 1588 during sessions of the Estates General.

Transition to the House of Orléans

The medieval castle was given in 1397 to

Louis I, Duke of Orléans Louis I (13 March 1372 – 23 November 1407) was Duke of Orléans from 1392 to his death in 1407. He was also Duke of Touraine (1386–1392), Count of Valois (1386?–1406) Blois (1397–1407), Angoulême (1404–1407), ...

, brother of Charles VI. After Louis' assassination, his widow, Valentina Visconti, retired to the Blois Castle. It was later inherited by their son, Charles d'Orléans the poet, who was captured at Agincourt and imprisoned in England. After 25 years as a hostage in England, Charles d'Orleans returned to his beloved Blois and partly helped rebuild the château as a more commodious dwelling. It became the favourite royal residence and the kingdom's political capital under Charles' son, when Count Louis II became King

Louis XII Louis XII (27 June 14621 January 1515), also known as Louis of Orléans was King of France from 1498 to 1515 and King of Naples (as Louis III) from 1501 to 1504. The son of Charles, Duke of Orléans, and Marie of Cleves, he succeeded his second ...

of France in 1498.

King Louis XII

At the beginning of the 16th century, King Louis XII initiated a reconstruction of the entrance of the main block and the creation of an Italian garden in terraced

parterre A ''parterre'' is a part of a formal garden constructed on a level substrate, consisting of symmetrical patterns, made up by plant beds, plats, low hedges or coloured gravels, which are separated and connected by paths. Typically it was the ...

s where Victor Hugo Square stands today. This wing, of red brick and grey stone, forms the main entrance to a proper château onwards, and features a statue of the mounted king above the entrance. Although the style is principally Gothic, as the profiles of mouldings, the lobed arches and the pinnacles attest, there are elements of

Renaissance architecture Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of Ancient Greece, ancient Greek and ...

present, such as a small chandelier.

King Francis I

When Francis I became king in 1515, his wife

Queen Claude Claude of France (13 October 1499 – 26 July 1524) was Queen of France from 1 January 1515 as the wife of King Francis I and Duchess of Brittany in her own right from 9 January 1514 until her death in 1524. She was the eldest daughter of King ...

had him refurbish Blois with the intention of moving from the

Château d'Amboise The Château d'Amboise is a château in Amboise, located in the Indre-et-Loire ''Departments of France, département'' of the Loire Valley in France. Confiscated by the monarchy in the 15th century, it became a favoured royal residence and was ex ...

. Francis initiated the construction of a new wing and created one of the period's most important libraries in the castle. After the death of his wife in 1524, he spent very little time at Blois and the massive library was moved to the royal

Palace of Fontainebleau Palace of Fontainebleau ( , ; ), located southeast of the center of Paris, in the commune of Fontainebleau, is one of the largest French royal châteaux. It served as a hunting lodge and summer residence for many of the List of French monarchs ...

. It is this library that formed the royal library and the backbone of the . File:Blois1900.jpg, The rear of the Francis I wing, facing over central Blois in the 1890s File:ChateaudeBloisFacadedesLoges.jpg, The rear of the wing in 2007 File:Blois Château de Blois Innenhof Francois-I-Flügel 3.jpg, The château's most renowned feature, the spiral staircase in the Francis I wing Since King Louis XII was very committed in the

Italian Wars The Italian Wars were a series of conflicts fought between 1494 and 1559, mostly in the Italian Peninsula, but later expanding into Flanders, the Rhineland and Mediterranean Sea. The primary belligerents were the House of Valois, Valois kings o ...

, which imported the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

movement into Blois, this wing's architecture and ornamentation are marked by Italian influence. In the middle, there is the monumental spiral staircase, covered with fine bas-relief sculptures and looking out onto the château's central court. These monumental staircases served as a draft for those of the

Château de Chambord The Château de Chambord () in Chambord, Centre-Val de Loire, France, is one of the most recognisable châteaux in the world because of its very distinctive French Renaissance architecture, which blends traditional French medieval forms with ...

, built a few years later. Behind this wing is the "Lodges Façade" ( in French), characterised by a series of disconnected niches.

King Henry III

Driven from

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

during the

French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion were a series of civil wars between French Catholic Church, Catholics and Protestantism, Protestants (called Huguenots) from 1562 to 1598. Between two and four million people died from violence, famine or disease di ...

, King Henry III took refuge in Blois, and summoned Estates General meetings there in 1576 and 1588. On 23 December 1588, the King's arch-enemy since the

Day of the Barricades In the French Wars of Religion, the Day of the Barricades (in ), 12 May 1588, was an outwardly spontaneous public uprising in staunchly Catholic Paris against the moderate, hesitant, temporizing policies of Henry III. It was in fact called forth ...

Henry I, Duke of Guise Henri I de Lorraine, Duke of Guise, Prince of Joinville, Count of Eu (31 December 1550 – 23 December 1588), sometimes called ('Scarface'), was the eldest son of François, Duke of Guise, and Anna d'Este. His maternal grandparents were Ercole ...

, was assassinated. The following day, the Duke's brother,

Louis II, Cardinal of Guise Louis II de Lorraine, cardinal de Guise (6 July 1555, Dampierre – 24 December 1588, Château de Blois) was a French prelate, Cardinal and politician during the latter French Wars of Religion. The third son of François de Lorraine, duke of Gui ...

was also murdered within the château.

King Henry IV

After this, the castle was occupied by King Henry IV, the first

Bourbon Bourbon may refer to: Food and drink * Bourbon whiskey, an American whiskey made using a corn-based mash * Bourbon, a beer produced by Brasseries de Bourbon * Bourbon biscuit, a chocolate sandwich biscuit * Bourbon coffee, a type of coffee ma ...

monarch. On Henry's death in 1610, it became the place of exile for his widow,

Marie de' Medici Marie de' Medici (; ; 26 April 1575 – 3 July 1642) was Queen of France and Navarre as the second wife of King Henry IV. Marie served as regent of France between 1610 and 1617 during the minority of her son Louis XIII. Her mandate as rege ...

, when she was expelled from the court of her son, King

Louis XIII Louis XIII (; sometimes called the Just; 27 September 1601 – 14 May 1643) was King of France from 1610 until his death in 1643 and King of Navarre (as Louis II) from 1610 to 1620, when the crown of Navarre was merged with the French crown. ...

Duke Gaston of Orléans

In 1626, King Louis XIII gave the

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

and the Château of Blois to his brother and heir,

Gaston, Duke of Orléans ''Monsieur'' Gaston, Duke of Orléans (Gaston Jean Baptiste; 24 April 1608 – 2 February 1660), was the third son of King Henry IV of France and his second wife, Marie de' Medici. As a son of the king, he was born a . He later acquired the title ...

as a wedding gift. In 1634, Gaston embarked on building a completely new wing to the château. The task of developing this new castle was given to

François Mansart François Mansart (; 23 January 1598 – 23 September 1666) was a French architect credited with introducing classicism into the Baroque architecture of France. The ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' identifies him as the most accomplished of 17th-c ...

. The rear of the courtyard is where Mansart began this ambitious building project with a main dwelling house. This house should have been the first building in a large-scale reconstruction project. The project was stopped in 1638 when Gaston's nephew was born, the future

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

. With Louis XIV's birth, Gaston was no longer the heir and no longer eligible for financing. This wing makes up the rear wall of the court, directly opposite the Louis XII wing. The central section is composed of three horizontal layers where the superposition of Doric, Ionic and Corinthian orders can be seen. By the time of the French Revolution, the immense castle had been neglected for more than 130 years. The contents, many of its statues, royal emblems and coats of arms of the palace were removed. In a state of near-total disrepair, the Château of Blois was scheduled to be demolished but was given a reprieve as a military barracks.

Preservation as a monument

In 1840, the initiative of

Prosper Mérimée Prosper Mérimée (; 28 September 1803 – 23 September 1870) was a French writer in the movement of Romanticism, one of the pioneers of the novella, a short novel or long short story. He was also a noted archaeologist and historian, an import ...

placed the château on the list of historical monuments. This allowed state funds to be used in the preservation. It was restored under the direction of the architect

Félix Duban Jacques Félix Duban () (14 October 1798, Paris – 8 October 1870, Bordeaux) was a French architect, the contemporary of Jacques Ignace Hittorff and Henri Labrouste. Life and career Duban won the Prix de Rome in 1823, the most prestigious awa ...

. The château is maintained and owned by the town of Blois and has been opened to the public as a museum and tourist attraction. On view for visitors are the supposed poison cabinets of Catherine de' Medici. Most likely this room, the "Chamber of Secrets", had a much more banal purpose: exhibiting precious objects for guests.

People linked to the Château

People born in the Château

The following individuals were born inside the Château: *

Charles of Blois Charles of Blois-Châtillon (131929 September 1364), nicknamed "the Saint", was the legalist Duke of Brittany from 1341 until his death, via his marriage to Joan, Duchess of Brittany and Countess of Penthièvre, holding the title against the ...

(in 1319); *

(in 1462), King of France between 1498 and 1515; *

Marguerite Louise d'Orléans Marguerite Louise d'Orléans (28 July 1645 – 17 September 1721) was a French princess who became grand duchess of Tuscany as the wife of Grand Duke Cosimo III de' Medici. Libertine and unruly in conduct from an early age, her relations with ...

(in 1645), daughter of

People who died in the Château

The following individuals died within the château: *

Anne of Brittany Anne of Brittany (; 25/26 January 1477 – 9 January 1514) was reigning Duchess of Brittany from 1488 until her death, and Queen of France from 1491 to 1498 and from 1499 to her death. She was the only woman to have been queen consort of Fran ...

(in 1514), last Duchess of

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

, married Louis XII in 1499; *

Claude of France Claude of France (13 October 1499 – 26 July 1524) was Queen of France from 1 January 1515 as the wife of King Francis I and Duchess of Brittany in her own right from 9 January 1514 until her death in 1524. She was the eldest daughter of Ki ...

(in 1524), daughter of King Louis XII and Queen Anne of Brittany, married Francis I; * Henry I of Guise (in 1588), 3rd Duke of Guise, assassinated after his participation to the

; * Louis II of Guise (in 1588), Duke of Guise's brother; *

Catherine de' Medici Catherine de' Medici (, ; , ; 13 April 1519 – 5 January 1589) was an Italian Republic of Florence, Florentine noblewoman of the Medici family and Queen of France from 1547 to 1559 by marriage to Henry II of France, King Henry II. Sh ...

(in 1589), wife of King

Henry II Henry II may refer to: Kings * Saint Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor (972–1024), crowned King of Germany in 1002, of Italy in 1004 and Emperor in 1014 *Henry II of England (1133–89), reigned from 1154 *Henry II of Jerusalem and Cyprus (1271–1 ...

, was exiled in Blois by her son, King Henry III; * Gaston, Duke of Orléans (in 1660), son of King Henry IV and last

Count of Blois Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...

References

External links

Château de Blois
- official site
Château de Blois
- The official website of France (in English) * A gallery of over 100 high resolutions images of the Chateau de Blois taken in 200

* High-resolution 360° Panoramas o
Château de Blois , Art Atlas
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chateau De Blois 1638 establishments in France Houses completed in 1638

Ancien Régime French architecture Historic house museums in Centre-Val de Loire

Loire Valley Art museums and galleries in France Museums in Loir-et-Cher Double spiral staircases Blois Joan of Arc Francis I of France Henry III of France Louis XII