Little is known on the way Blois was organised in the 16th
century. Succeeding occupations in the 17th and 18th centuries added to the
various transformations required throughout the Renaissance by the needs of an
ambulant court, and eventually blurred all clues. In the middle of the 19th
century, Félix Duban reinvented the castle, giving the
different rooms the names under which they are known today. Taking 1588 as his
starting point, he attributed the first floor to the Queen's apartments, the
second floor to those of the King, and thus centred the visit on Catherine de
Medicis and Henry III. Built by Thibault VI towards 1220, the Hall
of the General Estates still has its original layout: two vessels covered
by a wooden barrel vault and separated by an arcade of columns with capitals.
The painted decoration was done by Felix Duban towards 1861 and is inspired by
13th century polychromy. Used as a hall of justice by the counts of Blois, Henry
III had the representatives of the three estates (noblesse, clergy, third
estate) summoned here for a meeting of the Estates General in 1576 and 1588.
|
 |
 |
| The Hall of the Captain of the Guards (below left) was
originally divided in two, which explains the presence of two remarkable
fireplaces with their sumptuous Renaissance decoration. The salamander is the
emblem of François I while the ermine is the emblem of
his wife, Claude de France, the duchess of Brittany. |
 |
 |
| The Queen's gallery (below right), an indoor promenade, opens
towards the Facade des Loges, which was inspired by Bramante's work at the
Vatican. The former gardens created by Louis XII were found just opposite. The
glazed tiled floors were created by Félix Duban after a
15th century model. They were restored at the end of the 20th century. |
 |
 |
| It is necessary to walk through the room named "garde-robe"
(below left) in order to enter the Queen's Bedchamber. The bedchamber opens up
onto two intimate rooms: the study and the Queen's Oratory (below right). |
 |
 |
| The hall below leads into the Queen's Study, a reading room containing 180
sculpted oak panels dating back to 1530. This is the only French Renaissance
study still in existence today. |
 |
 |