[Illustration: CHÂTEAU de CHAMBORD
_Showing the Mansard roof put on by the celebrated architect, Mansart,
at the order of Louis XIV, to accommodate a large court._]
[Illustration: HALL IN THE CHÂTEAU de CHAMBORD
_The two stairways seen in the back wind around the same central shaft
and never join._]
Between the construction of Amiens and Salisbury and the building of
the Château of Chambord (shong-bore´) lie two centuries of history.
In them the spiritual power of the church, and the temporal power of
the pope and clergy, which had been supreme throughout the Middle
Ages, gave way to a large extent to a spirit of individualism and a
rising power on the part of the king and nobles. This change had its
effect upon the arts. The palace took precedence over the church in
architecture as the secular took precedence over the religious in
painting and the other arts. The Château of Chambord dates from the
earlier stages of this new architectural era. Built by King Francis
I in the early years of the sixteenth century, it is but one of the
hundreds of châteaux erected by the kings and nobles of France, from
Francis to the fall of the monarchy. Its architectural style is what is
known as early Renaissance. The claim of Chambord to beauty is due,
not so much to its decoration as to its imposing size, to the sense of
spaciousness it conveys, and to the manner in which it reflects the
spirit of its age.
Four hundred feet square along its outer walls, this vast château was
designed by Francis I merely as a hunting seat. The chief exterior
attraction of the building lies in its roof. This is a very maze of
gables, dormers, chimneys, and cupolas, dominated by the lantern that
crowns the center stair, and in which lights were hung to guide belated
hunters from the forest.