ВУЗ:
Составители:
Рубрика:
ter closing time. He jumped from the 940-foot level and was arrested as soon as he touched
ground.
• 22 July 2003 – A fire breaks out in an equipment room at the top of the tower. 8,000
tourists are evacuated and the monument closed while smoke billows into the Paris sky. The
blaze is caused by overheated cables. The smoke is enhanced by a fresh coat of paint on the
tower.
CHATEAU CHENONCEAU
The Chateau Chenonceau, near the small village of Chenonceau, in the Indre-et-Loire
département of the Loire Valley in France, was built on the site of an old mill on the River
Cher. The original castle was torched by Royal troops at the beginning of the 15-th cen-
tury. An attempt to rebuild it was made by Pierre Marques, but he went bankrupt leaving
behind little more than a pile of rubble.
Subsequently, the castle was purchased by Thomas Bohier, Chamberlain for King Charles
VIII of France who built an entirely new residence beginning in 1521. Eventually, the chateau
was seized by King François I for unpaid debts to the Crown, and after François' death, King
Henri II offered the chateau as a gift to his mistress, Diane de Poitiers who became fervently
attached to the chateau and its view along the river.
She would have the arched bridge constructed, joining the chateau to its opposite bank. She
then oversaw the planting of extensive flower and vegetable gardens along with a variety of
fruit trees. Set along the banks of the river, but buttressed from flooding by stone terraces, the
exquisite gardens were laid out in four triangles.
After King Henri died, his widow, the strong-willed Catherine de Medici, had Diane de
Poitiers removed to the Chateau Chaumont. Queen Catherine made it her own favorite resi-
dence, adding a series of gardens as well. As Regent of France, Catherine would spend a for-
tune on the chateau and on spectacular nighttime parties. In 1560, the first ever fireworks dis-
play seen in France took place during the celebrations marking the ascension to the throne of
Catherine's son François II.
On Catherine's death the chateau went to her daughter-in-law, Louise de Lorraine, wife of
King Henri III. At Chenonceau Louise was told of her husband's assassination and she fell into
a state of depression, spending the remainder of her days wandering aimlessly along the cha-
teau's vast corridors dressed in mourning clothes amidst somber black tapestries stitched with
skull and crossbones.
Another mistress took over in 1624, when Gabrielle d'Estrée, the favourite of King Henri
IV, inhabited the castle. After that, Chenonceau was abandoned to a forlorn darkness for more
than a hundred years until a wealthy noble bought it in 1732. George Sand's grandmother, Ma-
dame Dupin, saved it from destruction during the French Revolution. She was able to preserve
it from being destroyed by the Revolutionary Guard because it was essential to travel and
commerce being the only bridge across the river for many miles.
In 1864, Daniel Wilson, a Scotsman who had made a fortune installing gaslights throughout
Paris, bought the chateau for his daughter. In the tradition of Catherine de Medici, she would
spend a fortune on elaborate parties to such an extent that her finances were depleted and the
chateau was seized and sold to an American.
In 1913, the Menier family, famous for their chocolates, bought the chateau and still owns it
to this day. During World War I the gallery was used as a hospital ward; during the Second War
it was a means of escaping from the Nazi occupied Vichy zone on one side of the River Cher to
Страницы
- « первая
- ‹ предыдущая
- …
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
- …
- следующая ›
- последняя »
