Virtual Tours: The Palace of Fontainebleau

Hello and welcome back to the fourth episode of European Waterways Virtual Tours. It's back to normal this week and we'll be delving deep into the history of the French kings by taking a closer look at possibly one of the most richly decorated chateaux, the Palace of Fontainebleau. Set deep within the ancient forest of Fontainebleau, the palace is reputed to be the birthplace of the Renaissance and France. You join me here outside its incredibly ornate entrance gates which look onto a court of honour and the famous façade of Fontainebleau with its horseshoe-shaped staircase behind me. However, like everything, the house as it appears today didn't simply appear, no. To uncover its true story we have to travel back to the 13th century when Louis IX was the reigning sovereign. The history of the Palace of Fontainebleau can be roughly split into four phases. The Middle Ages under the reign of Louis IX, the Renaissance with Francis I, Henry II and Henry IV as king, the eve of a revolution with Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette as the sitting sovereigns and post-revolution when Napoleon Bonaparte made Fontainebleau into his palace of choice. What Louis IX would have seen would have been quite different to what we have today. A hunting lodge occupied the space which the palace sits on and was deep within the forest. What was to become the favourite getaway for the kings of France had been discovered by Louis' great-great-grandfather Louis VII and by the time Louis IX was using the lodge it had been transformed into something akin to a medieval castle. A convent had been built close to the site as had a religious hospital known in French as an It wasn't until the 16th century however that any major modifications and embellishments were made to the palace giving it somewhat the appearance and feel it has today. Francis I, a king who in some cases can be argued was the Renaissance, commissioned the architect Gilles le Breton to build a new palace on the site in the new Renaissance style which had recently been founded in Italy. Francis I enjoyed the leisures and comforts of life. Art, culture, music, good food, wine and women were very much the order of the day. Le Breton preserved in the old medieval keep from hunting lodge where the king's apartments were located a new Renaissance palace which was fit for a king. In the 1540s King Francis expanded the chateau further and surrounded it with new parkland in the Italian Renaissance style complete with summer pavilions and what is believed to be the first grotto built in France. Following the untimely death of Francis I his son Henry II continued his farmer's legacy and remodeled the chateau's facade decorating it with the now famous horseshoe staircase as well as remodeling many of the interior function rooms including a ballroom which we will be visiting during the tour. Following the death of Henry II in a jousting accident his widow Catherine de' Medici continued the construction and decoration of the chateau. In 1565 as a measure of security due to the wars of religion a moat was dug around the palace to protect it against potential Huguenot attacks. After the wars were over the moat was filled in and no traces remain today. King Henry IV made more additions to the palace than any other king since Francis I. Between 1601 and 1606 he had all the facades around the courtyard remodeled to give them greater harmony and also ordered a redecoration of another of the palace's chapels that of Saint-Sartuna. Between 1606 and 1609 he built a new courtyard to provide a place for the kitchens and the residences of the court officials. As well as overseeing the construction of two new galleries within the palace he also commissioned the construction of a jeu de paume an indoor tennis court which today is the oldest and largest such court in the world. Henry IV also devoted much time and effort in transforming the parkland and gardens around the chateau. His gardener created a large parterre of flowerbeds decorated with ancient statues and separated them with paths and large squares on the north side of the palace whereas on the south side he created a parkland planted with pine elm and fruit trees as well as laying out a grand canal 1,200 meters long 60 years before Louis XIV built his own at the palace of Versailles. His son Louis XIII who was born and later baptized at the chateau oversaw the continuation of work initiated by his father and completed the decoration of the chapel of the trinity as well as assigning the court architect to rebuild the horseshoe staircase on the courtyard that had become known as the court of the white horse or cheval blanc. Despite spending a lot of time at the palace of Versailles King Louis XIV spent more time at Fontainebleau than any other monarch. He liked to hunt in the forest at the end of the summer and the beginning of the autumn to get away from the heat of Paris and court life at Versailles. Though he made few changes to the exterior the Sun King did commission his landscape architects from Versailles André Le Nôtre and Louis Le Vaux to redesign Henry IV's large parterre into the French formal gardens we see today. On the eve of the French Revolution King Louis XVI made yet more additions to the palace to create space for his courtiers. A new building was built alongside the gallery of Francis I. The apartments of Queen Mary Antoinette were rebuilt and a Turkish style salon was built for her in 1777 as well as a games room and a boudoir decorated in the arabesque style. King Louis XVI for Mary Antoinette made their last visit to the palace of Fontainebleau in 1786. Fortunately during the revolution the palace of Fontainebleau did not suffer any significant damage on the exterior however the furniture and furnishings were either destroyed or sold at auction. The buildings on the estate were later occupied by the central school for the and then in 1803 Napoleon Bonaparte founded a military school on the site. As he prepared to become emperor Napoleon wanted to preserve as much of the old regime as possible and so chose Fontainebleau as a historic meeting place between himself and Pope Pius VII who had been forcibly taken from Rome to crown him as such. Napoleon had a suite of rooms decorated for the and the entire chateau refurbished with much of the original furniture relocated to its rightful place. He held the pope captive at Fontainebleau so that he was able to be crowned emperor Notre-Dame under the eyes of God and to accomplish his plan on returning the seat of the catholic church to France. Though Napoleon did not spend much time at the chateau as he was occupied with so many campaigns he did have the ceremonial bedchamber of the kings transformed into the throne room which today is the only one surviving in France as well as other apartments and drawing rooms which were redecorated in the new empire style. Napoleon spent the last days of his reign at Fontainebleau before eventually abdicating his throne on the 4th of April 1814 here at the palace. On the 20th of April after a failed attempt to commit suicide Napoleon gave an emotional farewell from the horseshoe staircase to his soldiers of the old guard assembled in the courtyard Following the restoration of the monarchy both King Louis XVIII and Charles X stayed at the palace however neither made any significant changes to the building or the grounds. Louis Philippe was more active restoring rooms and redecorating others in the style of his period. Emperor Napoleon III who'd been baptized at Fontainebleau resumed the tradition of long stays at the palace in particular during the summer. Many of the historic rooms were restored to appear as they would have done when they were built while the private apartments were decorated to suit the tastes of the emperor and empress. Finally during the Franco-German war of 1870 the empire fell and the chateau was closed. The palace was briefly occupied by the Prussians and later became an army headquarters under the command of Frederick Charles in 1871. Following the war the palace became the home of the advanced school of artillery and engineering of the French army and it was later occasionally used as a residence by the presidents of the third republic. It received a visit by the last survivor of its royal residence Empress Eugénie in 1920. Following the first world war the palace became home of the American school of art and music which still exists today. In 1927 the chateau became a national museum to the legacy of the Bonaparte dynasty. During the second world war it was occupied by the Germans between 1940 and 1941 and following the war part of the chateau became the headquarters of the allied forces of central europe under NATO until 1966. The general restoration of the chateau took place between 1964 and 1968 under president Charles de Gaulle as minister for culture. The palace was finally designated a UNESCO world heritage site in 1981. So now that you're all caught up what do you say we head inside and see what treasures the palace has in store? Come on follow me. In this virtual tour I will be taking you through some of the grand apartments and major rooms of the palace and we start here in the plates gallery. Situated on the first floor overlooking the courtyard of the Cheval Blanc King Louis Philippe had this gallery built in 1840 and what had previously been a terrace. The lower half of the walls are inset with 120 plates made in the porcelain works at Sèvres and they recount the history of Fontainebleau. Above the panelling and on the ceiling are paintings which were originally in the gallery of Diane which had been remodeled in 1810. Moving on we find ourselves here in the horseshoe vestibule the official entrance lobby of the is the ornate doorway you can see behind me. Sculpted in 1639 by Jean Gobert these beautiful wooden doors give on to the famously decorated gallery of France's first. A second doorway to my right leads to the gallery overlooking the nave of the chapel of the trinity which we visited in last week's tour. If you'd like to learn more about the chapel click here. Through the doorway and we come to this possibly the most famous of icons of the renaissance style in France the gallery of Francis I. This was very much made for a man who basked in self-adoration. Initially a simple passageway the gallery allowed access from the royal apartment to what remains of Louis IX's convent the chapel de Trinitaire. Francis I commissioned two Italian artists Sebastiano Serlio and Giovanni Battista Diacopo better known as Rosso Fiorentino to decorate the gallery between 1533 and 1539. The two craftsmen decorated it with murals glorifying the king framed in stucco reliefs and their style has since become known as the first school of Fontainebleau and it is widely believed that the renaissance was introduced to France here at Fontainebleau during this time. The lower part of the walls are overlaid and carved with this beautiful walnut wainscoting and was the work of the Italian cabinet maker Francesco Schliebeck di Garpi. The beautiful panelling incorporates benches and is embellished with both the king's coat of arms his monogram and his emblem the salamander. Above the wooden panelling frescoed panels with extravagant stucco frames are the most striking feature of what was to become known as the emblem of the first school of Fontainebleau. While the gallery may be considered today as one of the first examples of renaissance decoration in France it has not really been left to us as it was intended to be built. The shorter sides of the have since lost their original Rosso paintings after modifications carried out in the 17th and 18th centuries and a study initially built into the north wall was removed following the building of a parallel wing which also led to the removal of all the windows on the left hand side. Nonetheless the greater part of the decoration remains and it was lovingly restored in the early to mid-1960s. As we pass through the gallery and exit on the opposite side we enter the guard's room. Built during the reign of Charles IX it is located just outside the royal apartments and provided full-time protection to the monarch in residence. Of the original decoration dating to the 1570s only the beautiful beam and joist ceiling and the war trophy frieze remains. The rest including the floor which imitates the ceiling was commissioned by Louis Philippe in the early 19th century. The fireplace which includes elements from the 16th and 17th centuries was installed in 1836. Past the guard's room we pass through a narrow corridor and eventually find ourselves in perhaps the largest room of the chateau, the ballroom. Originally designed as a lodger by Francis I this vast space was reimagined by his son Henry II. The open arcades were turned into windows and the vault which was already under construction was replaced with a At the east end a vast fireplace is flanked by two bronze satires, copies of Roman statues and to the west the minstrel's gallery can still be seen from where an orchestra would play while the royal family and their court enjoyed the evening's entertainment. Behind the ballroom is the other chapel of the chateau, that of Saint-Saturnin. Originally built in the 12th century it actually predates the chapel of the Trinity however it was heavily rebuilt under the reign of Francis I. Its mighty dome ceiling was given the same ornate decoration as the ballroom by Henry IV. Set deep in the old castle keep the salon where Louis XIII had been the royal dining room and later a bedchamber in the 16th century but the two were opened up as one room by Louis XV and has since seen several incarnations including an officer's room under Napoleon. Louis Philippe had the 18th century carving and wood panelling enhanced with gold leaf and a number of paintings already in the chateau's collection. Other than a marquetry cartel clock embellished with Apollo's gilt bronze chariot originally from the chateau de Chantilly, the 19th century furniture imitates that of the reign of Louis XV. Once the bedchamber of Eleanor of Austria, Francis I's second wife, the room we're in now became the queen's antechamber in the 17th century, a dining room during the second empire and then later a drawing room. All that remains of its renaissance decor however is the stucco ornamented fireplace with its frescoed medallion, the marriage of Venus and Adonis. Next door is the queen's antechamber of which only the 18th century fireplace has survived. The numerous tapestries seen hanging today were installed by Napoleon III and recount the myth of Psyche and Cupid. Other than the gallery of Francis I, perhaps one of the most recognisable and unforgettable rooms in the chateau has to be this, Diana's gallery. This vast 80 metre gallery was created under Henry IV as a covered walkway for the queen and gets its name from the paintings which depict the myth of Diana, the Greek goddess of hunting. The gallery was in a serious state of disrepair in the early 19th century and was subsequently divided up into compartments with the intention to showcase paintings depicting Napoleon I's great deeds. However while the gallery had been prepared for such a fate it didn't come to anything more and only the decorative elements of the gallery were added. Later Louis XVIII took advantage of the empty gallery to redecorate it with new paintings of the Diana myth. The neo-classical decor was rounded off with a series of paintings showing the history of the French monarchy, however with the exception of a few large scenes and an equestrian portrait of Henry IV the paintings were removed when the gallery became a library in 1853. The Globe from Napoleon's study at the Tuileries in Paris found its place here in 1861. The next series of rooms we will be visiting are primarily associated with Napoleon Bonaparte and we start off with this one, unquestionably the handsomest surviving example of late 18th century arabesque decoration in France. The Empress's Grand Salon, this games room was among the rooms completely redecorated for Marie Antoinette in 1786 and the waistcoating and beading were painted with the grisaille, a technique of painting which imitates sculpture with monochrome compositions of twining plants, women in flowering robes and female dancers as well as some cameo-like treatments of subjects from antiquity and the same decorative technique was applied to the doors. The room as we see it now is decorated in the first empire style in line with the etiquette re-established by Napoleon and comprises of two armchairs fit for the Emperor and Empress as well as chairs and stools covered in gold-trimmed green velvet giving it the atmosphere it probably would have had when it was used by the Empress as her Grand Salon. From Marie de Medici to Empress Eugenie, all of France's female sovereigns used this ceremonial bedchamber which today offers a unique history of interior decoration. In the centre of the ceiling which is festooned with floral motifs is the monogram of Anne of Austria, the mother of Louis XIV and the interior was later modernised for the wife of Louis XV in the rockeye style. The doors however with their arabesque motif date from the time of Marie Antoinette, the period represented by the The next room which can be best described as a veritable jewel set in silver was completed in 1786 as a private retreat for Marie Antoinette and combines wooden panelling in the arabesque style with sculpted ornaments. The mahogany floor bears the Queen's monogram and of all the original furniture only the roll-top desk and hopper table survive. Decorated with mother-of-pearl, silver and gilt bronze brass and a satin-finished boxwood and ebony veneer they offer a perfect aesthetic fit with the boudoir's aura of feminine sophistication. Like the Queen's bedchamber what is today known as the throne room testifies to Fontainebleau's long history from Henry IV to Louis XVI this was where all the sovereigns slept during their stays and the different styles can be found in the ceiling and panelling that adorn the room in In 1808 however Napoleon transformed the space into his throne room as a sign of a continuation of power. The place where the bed used to be is now occupied by the enormous canopy over the throne its two end signs topped with the letter N, a lightning bolt and an eagle. The throne is actually that from the Tuileries and was created in 1804. By passing through a small room whose panelling is painted with pictures of birds the King's Valley room where according to legend the minutes were burned once the council meetings were over we come to the council chamber. This room underwent an ambitious redecoration in the mid-18th century in which much of the interior detailing was renewed and in 1773 the room was enlarged with a semi-rotunda giving on to the gardens. Under Napoleon I the room retained its function and the chairs and folding stools allowed ministers and councillors to take their places around the Emperor. In 1808 Napoleon decided to turn the royal powder room i.e. the former toilet into a bedroom. The splendid canopied bed was ornamented at its head and feet with sculpted allegories of nobility and glory, justice and plenty. Napoleon stepped out of bed onto Salinger's carpet whose central motif was a cross of the Legion of Honour its five branches alternating with civil and military attributes for the Emperor who had worked hard to obtain the throne and wanted to make it known that those who served him well would be well rewarded. Napoleon tried to maintain his supremacy over his rivals and his control over Europe by extraordinary capacity for work. In 1811 his study was turned into a small bedroom and a small spiral staircase led down to the library and the nearby map room on the ground floor meaning that whenever he was feeling the need for a nap he could quickly nip upstairs and get his 40 winks. And finally we come to a rather small and unadorned room despite being very plain this is in fact a very important room for it was here that the Marshals of France summoned Napoleon to end the war and relinquish power forcing him to sign an act of abdication on this small table behind me. And so there we have it 800 years of history under one roof with an unbroken line of 34 kings and two emperors I'm sure you can agree that the Palace of Fontainebleau truly is one for the ages. Join me next week as we head north to Scotland into the Highlands to discover the mystical and intriguing history of Corridor Castle. I will see you there.