The story of this place
Begun in 1519 by the 25-year-old King Francis I, Chambord is the grandest of the Loire châteaux—a 440-room French Renaissance fantasy set in a hunting park the size of central Paris, ringed by 32 kilometres of wall. Its centrepiece is a famous double-helix staircase of two intertwined spirals that never meet, so ingenious that it is often attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, whom Francis had brought to France. The king used the vast pile for only a few weeks in his lifetime. During the Second World War the Louvre's treasures—including the Mona Lisa—were hidden here for safekeeping. Its roofscape bristles with 800 sculpted columns and chimneys.