Meanwhile, in Urbino, the Della Rovere family was laying the groundwork for the High Renaissance when their son Giuliano became Pope Julius II, bringing along the architect Donato Bramante and painter Raphael with him to Rome. Their ducal palace in Urbino, which I’ve looked at before, was a center of Humanist learning, focusing on ancient…
Tag: Palaces
Renaissance Architecture, Part One
It’s come to my attention that there is not a strong grasp of what Renaissance architecture really is, judging by all the flippant labeling of many buildings around America as “Renaissance Revival.” So what exactly is Renaissance architecture in the context of Italian history (note there is also French, German, etc. variants, as well)? Let’s…
Beauty and Terror: Sainte Chapelle and the Conciergerie
As I’ve mentioned before, the center of ancient Gallic and Roman Paris was the island in the middle of the Seine River known as the Île de la Cité, and not surprisingly for symbolic and practical reasons when the city became the capital of the kingdom of France, the royal palace was located there. The…
The Château of Vaux-le-Vicomte
The sun was shining when we first arrived at the stunning and highly influential Château of Vaux-le-Vicomte. I had been wanting to visit this remarkable palace for a long time, and it did not disappoint. It represents an important moment in the development of Seventeenth Century palace design, and many of the elements brought here from…
The Château of Fontainebleau
The Château of Fontainebleau features as one of the most important in the history of royal France, but it is perhaps not very well known. Dozens of French kings called it home at least for part of the year, all the way up to the year 1870, but it is perhaps not well known to…
The Château of Chenonceaux
Sitting aside and crossing the Le Cher River, the Château of Chenonceaux is easily one of the greatest achievements of humans carefully adapting the built environment with the natural environment. Instead of trampling on the natural world, the renovation of what had been an old Medieval fortress was transformed into a residence that worked with…
The Château and Town of Blois
I’ll be honest; a lot of the Loire Valley featured run-down barns and beaten up farm implements interspersed with mostly new houses built in the last thirty years. But occasionally there were awe-inspiring châteaux and stunning towns that have preserved their historic architecture. One such place is the city of Blois, which sits on the…
The Château of Chambord
Oops, the Château of Chambord was undergoing massive restoration of its distinctive towers when we visited, but we still had a good time. Below is a view of what the château looks like without scaffolding. Designed for King Francis I, Chambord was never actually finished, and was rarely occupied during his reign. It however is…
The Trianon
The Trianon was a village demolished for an expansion of the royal grounds of Versailles under the reign of Louis XIV. Equally influential in the development of garden and park design, the Trianon was built to provide a respite from the formality of the court at Versailles, and in the process and in combination with…
The Gardens of Versailles
Business up front, party in the back, as they say. The backside of Versailles facing the extensive gardens is made up of three flat elevations with large swaths of reflecting ponds and gravel paths on the first terrace. The same garden designer as Vaux-le-Vicomte, André Le Nôtre, was brought in to design the grounds here…