Chambord: Full Frontal View by photosynthesis

Photography • Historical • posted on Aug 17, 2012

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Description

From Wikipedia: Chateaux in the 16th-century departed from castle architecture; while they were off-shoots of castles, with features commonly associated with them, they did not have serious defences. Extensive gardens and water features, such as a moat, were common amongst chateaux from this period. Chambord is no exception to this pattern. The layout is reminiscent of a typical castle with a keep, corner towers, and defended by a moat. Built in Renaissance style, the internal layout is an early example of the French and Italian style of grouping rooms into self-contained suites, a departure from the medieval style of corridor rooms. The massive chateau is composed of a central keep with four immense bastion towers at the corners. The keep also forms part of the front wall of a larger compound with two more large towers. Bases for a possible further two towers are found at the rear, but these were never developed, and remain the same height as the wall. The chateau features 440 rooms, 282 fireplaces, and 84 staircases. Four rectangular vaulted hallways on each floor form a cross-shape. The chateau was never intended to provide any form of defence from enemies; consequently the walls, towers and partial moat are purely decorative, and even at the time were an anachronism. Some elements of the architecture – open windows, loggia, and a vast outdoor area at the top – borrowed from the Italian Renaissance architecture – are less practical in cold and damp northern France. The roofscape of Chambord contrasts with the masses of its masonry and has often been compared with the skyline of a town: it shows eleven kinds of towers and three types of chimneys, without symmetry, framed at the corners by the massive towers. The design parallels are north Italian and Leonardesque. Writer Henry James remarked "the towers, cupolas, the gables, the lanterns, the chimneys, look more like the spires of a city than the salient points of a single building." Tomorrow, I will post a closer look at some of those very ornate towers & chimneys... Please zoom

Comments (18)

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Mondwin

2:40AM | Fri, 17 August 2012

Really splendid my friend!!Bravissimo!:DDD.Hugsxx Whylma

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jayfar

2:56AM | Fri, 17 August 2012

A superb picture and would make a brilliant jig saw puzzle!

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GARAGELAND

3:40AM | Fri, 17 August 2012

ZOOOOMAGE a must!!!!

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sharky_

3:54AM | Fri, 17 August 2012

Outstanding Photography. Aloha

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Celart

6:03AM | Fri, 17 August 2012

Wow. That's amazing. superb shot. Bravo

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dakotabluemoon

7:06AM | Fri, 17 August 2012

This is simply gorgeous amazing job on this.

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blankfrancine

7:40AM | Fri, 17 August 2012

An amazing architectural wonder.Great info and composition.

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Juliette.Gribnau

8:29AM | Fri, 17 August 2012

superb !!!

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MrsRatbag

8:49AM | Fri, 17 August 2012

Wow! Breathtaking sight!

MrsLubner

10:11AM | Fri, 17 August 2012

Stunningly spectacular. Your treatment has really given the castle a super-charge of royalty and dignity.

alanwilliams

10:41AM | Fri, 17 August 2012

what a setting, lovely treatment

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AidanaWillowRaven

10:59AM | Fri, 17 August 2012

Now that's a Chateaux ...

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UVDan

12:57PM | Fri, 17 August 2012

What an incredible building! I would love to see the architectural and structural plans for that. I wish I could be a bird watching it being built. A superb architectural study!

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