France - Leonardo Da Vinci's Home by the Loire
By Michael Russell

In France during the reign of Louis XI (1107-1115), the Chateau du Clos-Luce was built on Gallo-Roman foundations. After completion, the king gave the residence of pink brick to his favorite, Etienne le Loup, a cook's assistant he had ennobled. At that time, the estate was called the Manoir du Cloux and was surrounded by fortifications, the sole remnants of which are the remains of the watchtower. Etienne Le Loup also had a large dovecote which could house 500 pigeons; it is still intact at the bottom of the park.

When Charles VIII of France bought the chateau in July 1490, he made it a royal residence and it was to remain so for two centuries. While the Royal family and their Court continued to reside at the Château d'Amboise in the Loire Valley, their secondary residence was the Manoir du Cloux. Charles VIII had the chapel built here for the Queen, Anne de Bretagne, in mourning for her children who died young.

In later years, the young Duke of Angouleme, the future Francis I, organized war games in the gardens of the Clos-Lucé. The sister of Francis I, Marguerite de Navarre, wrote the first erotic stories of "L'Heptaméron" there. It was under Francis I that Le Clos-Lucé became the house symbolising the Renaissance movement in France. Francis I had painters, architects and poets, such as Clément Marot, brought here on the advice of his sister, all of whom were seeking royal protection. But Leonardo da Vinci was undoubtedly the greatest of those to cross the threshold of Le Clos Lucé.

Le Clos Lucé is one of the jewels of the Renaissance. It is the only chateau to have been built of both brick and tufa stone (with the exception of Le Plessis-les-Tours), extracted from the region's quarries. It is also one of the best furnished residences in the Val de Loire. Apart from the hovel where he was born in Vinci, Le Clos Lucé was the only home of Leonardo da Vinci. In fact, Leonardo da Vinci spent his life between Florence, Milan and Rome, offering his services as engineer, architect and artist to the rulers of the day, who acted as his protectors. He lived at Le Clos Luce for 3 years and ended his days there.