Château de Blois

Château de Blois

Four castles in one

In the town of Blois, in the heart of the Loire valley, stands a royal château like no other. Around a single great courtyard rise four wings, and each was built in a different period, in a different style — medieval, late Gothic, Renaissance and Classical. Walking around the courtyard is like walking through hundreds of years of French architecture all at once. For this reason the Royal Château de Blois is sometimes called a living textbook of how French building changed over time.

A home of kings and queens

Blois was one of the favourite homes of the kings of France, especially in the 1400s and 1500s. Several monarchs held court here, and the château buzzed with the life of the royal family, their servants and their courtiers.

The most famous wing was built by King Francis I in the early 1500s, in the beautiful new Renaissance style. Its great spiral staircase, set in an open octagonal tower and richly carved with the king's salamander emblem, is one of the most admired pieces of Renaissance architecture in France. Visitors love to climb it and imagine the royal court sweeping up and down its steps.

The murder of the Duke of Guise

Blois is also remembered for a dramatic and bloody event. In 1588, France was torn apart by the Wars of Religion, a long and bitter struggle between Catholics and Protestants. King Henry III felt threatened by an overmighty rival, the powerful Catholic Duke of Guise, who many thought wanted the throne for himself.

So the king laid a trap. In December 1588, the Duke of Guise was summoned to the royal apartments at Blois — and there he was set upon and killed by the king's guards. This shocking murder, carried out in the heart of the château, became one of the most famous episodes in French history, and the rooms where it happened can still be visited today.

Art and learning

Blois was not only a place of politics and plots. Kings and queens filled it with art, and one queen created beautiful gardens around it. A later royal resident, the king's brother Gaston of Orléans, added the elegant Classical wing in the 1600s, designed by one of the greatest architects of the age, though it was never fully finished.

A treasure preserved

After the royal court left the Loire for Paris and Versailles, Blois lost its importance and even fell into disrepair, used at one point as a barracks. But its remarkable beauty and history were recognised in the 1800s, when it became one of the first great French monuments to be carefully restored and protected.

Visiting today

Visitors can wander the courtyard to compare its four wings, climb the famous Francis I staircase, and tour the royal apartments, including the rooms linked to the murder of the Duke of Guise. In the evenings, a sound-and-light show brings the château's dramatic stories to life on its walls. Royal, beautiful and steeped in history, Château de Blois is one of the great treasures of the Loire valley.