Chambord

Chambord, a celebrated château in the French department of Loir-et-Cher, stands 12 miles E. of Blois, in the midst of a walled, sandy park of 13,000 acres. Commenced by Francis I. in 1526, it is a huge Renaissance pile, with numberless turrets, chimneys, gables, and cupolas, and with four round towers, each 63 feet in diameter. There are no fewer than 440 rooms. Chambord, the 'Versailles of Touraine,' was a residence of the French kings down to Louis XV., who conferred it on Marshal Saxe; and here in 1670 Molière gave the first representation of his Bourgeois Gentilhomme. Among its various occupants were Diane de Poitiers, Stanislaus of Poland, and Marshal Berthier, upon whom it was bestowed by Napoleon in 1809. It was bought from his widow in 1821 for 1,542,000 francs, and presented to the future Comte de Chambord, who spent large sums on its restoration. He left it to his wife, and, after her, to her nephews, by a will which was more than once disputed, but recognised by the state as valid. See La Question de Chambord, by J. B. C. Arnould (1887).