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Le château royal de Blois
 
 
41000 Blois (Loir-et-Cher)


Dominating the Loire valley, the castle of Blois is actually made of 4 monuments:
- the States room, XIIIth century gothic
- the Louis XII's wing, flamboyant gothic style
- the Francis Ist's wing, Renaissance style
- the Gaston d'Orléans's wing, attributed to Mansart.

Each monument reveals the history of the castle and the town of Blois. The castle belonged to the Dukes of Blois since the middle of the Xth century, but it was sold to Louis of Orléans in the XIVth century, during the Hundred Years war. His grandson, Louis XII, king of France, started building a gay and luminous castle in place of the gloomy medieval fortress. Its successor to the throne, Francis I, added another wing to the castle in 1515, in a Renaissance style very much influenced by the Italian art. Gaston d'Orléans, Louis XIII's brother, was exiled in Blois and also started to build his own castle. The project was given to the architect Mansart, who wanted to replace all the existing buildings by a classic style huge palace. But fortunately, he never finished the work.

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