Châteaux of The Loire (RA)
The Renaissance in France
- For Friends of the RA
- Includes only the best of the houses and gardens in the region, and planned to avoid the crowds.
- Stays at a château hotel in the centre of the area.
Securely under the control of the French monarchs from the late Middle Ages, the region around the lower reaches of the Loire was exceptional in a country still dominated by over-mighty subjects and riven by factionalism until well into the seventeenth century.
The relative stability of a territory submissive to royal writ, the prosperity arising from highly productive agricultural land and river-borne trade and the excellent hunting all provided the conditions for a building boom. Especially towards the end of the fifteenth century and during the first half of the sixteenth, a plethora of palaces, hunting lodges and country retreats were erected at the behest of members of the royal family, their mistresses and their loyal followers.
The result is a group of some of the most beautiful residential buildings in Europe. Paradigmatic in popular culture for furnishing the world-wide image of a fairy-tale palace, they are seminal in architectural history by constituting the first significant ultramontane manifestation of the Italian Renaissance. The sudden and whole-hearted admiration for all things Italian documented by the châteaux of the Loire was stimulated, ironically, by French invasions of Italy which began under Charles VIII in 1494 and came to an end under François I thirty years later.
The distinctive and affecting feature of these buildings was that Italianate motifs were grafted onto what were essentially Flamboyant Gothic forms. Round-headed arches, square-headed windows, classical pilasters and ancient Roman candelabra decoration blend with cylindrical towers and turrets, conical spires, high-pitched roofs and elaborate dormers to produce an effect which is Italianate but unmistakably French. It was not a case of importing wholesale the principles of Brunelleschi and Bramante but the creation of an original – and highly influential – synthesis.
Several of the châteaux have gardens, among which are some extraordinarily fine recreations of the original Renaissance design. Most are well and appropriately furnished and much decoration survives or has been well recreated (contrary to the widespread myth that French châteaux are empty). In planning the itinerary care has been taken to sidestep the crowds – some of these places are among the most visited in provincial France – and to provide a selection which is balanced and varied.