Château de Chambord

The Château de Chambord in Centre-Val de Loire is among the most recognisable châteaux in the world, for a French Renaissance architecture that grafts classical Renaissance structure onto traditional French medieval form. Francis I commissioned it and it was built between 1519 and 1547 as a hunting lodge. It is the largest château in the Loire Valley, and was never intended to be lived in for long. The roofline is the extraordinary part, a small town of chimneys and turrets, and the park around it is walkable and full of deer.