Château de Villers-Cotterêts

A castle dear to François I The fame of the Retz forest, in the Aisne, does not date from yesterday. In 632, Dagobert I was already hunting there! The kings who succeeded him also appreciated its wealth of game and built an unpretentious residence there. The great history of the castle only really begins with the future François I, who receives from his cousin King Louis XII the duchy of Valois and the castle when he is only 3 years old! In 1528, a few years after his heavy defeat at Pavia in Italy, the sovereign launched a series of construction projects, from the Louvre, which he enlarged, to the castle at Fontainebleau, which he built. To indulge in his favorite activity, hunting, a symbol of the elite, he built a royal palace in the middle of the Retz forest, the largest in France at the time. Villers-Cotterêts, then a modest village, also had the advantage of being the geographical heart of the Duchy of Valois, the dynasty from which Francis I came. One of the few royal residences in Picardy With its rich decoration, the imposing castle rivals the most beautiful achievements of its time. A masterpiece of Renaissance architecture, the chapel was the first in France to break with the Gothic tradition. As a sign of monarchic power, the king's emblems (salamander, fleur-de-lis and crowned initials) replaced Christian symbols in this place of prayer. Over time, the great names of architecture worked in Villers-Cotterêts, from Philibert Delorme, the first architect of King Henry II who participated in the construction of the Louvre, to André Le Nôtre, the famous gardener of Versailles who transformed the park at the request of Philippe d'Orléans, brother of Louis XIV.