Photos

The Castle of Fontainebleau is a Renaissance castle being next to the town of Fontainebleau. It was the residence of the sovereigns of France since François Ier to Napoleon III. Several kings left their print in the construction and the history of the castle. Since 1981, it is with its park on the List of the world inheritance of UNESCO. The western frontage built by François Ier opens on monumental Horseshoe Escalier and the Court of the White Horse. It is today the court of principal entry of the castle. On its site an old convent of monk, rested by Louis saint was, that François Ier gradually made demolish as from the years 1530. The court was designed like a closed space, surrounded of buildings on its four sides characterized by the use of the sandstone, brick and the coated hardcore. Of the unit, completed about 1542, remain today the principal wing, altered to XIXe S., which dominate the unit and contain the vault of the Trinity, and the northern wing including/understanding only one ground floor and a roof. In the south, the body of building which sheltered on the floor a gallery was replaced by a wing of residences under the reign of Louis XV. The grid of honor, richly decorated Napoleonean emblems, succeeded in 1808 a wing similar to the northern wing, thus releasing the sight on the court since outside.
WS another view of "the escalier".