Amboise · Indre-et-Loire
Leonardo’s garden at Clos-Lucé
The flamboyant Gothic manor given to Leonardo da Vinci by François I in 1516, where he spent his last three years, is classified since 1862; its park is today laid out as a garden evoking his landscapes, with Amboise castle in view.
From the source
Château du Clos-Lucé is a château at Amboise, Indre-et-Loire, in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France. The recorded building campaign dates from the 15th century. Its architecture is recorded as Flamboyant. It is protected as a monument historique at the higher of the two levels (classé). Details are drawn from the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture.
Editorial reading
The record is about the house: built by a servant of Louis XI, acquired by Charles VIII who added the chapel, given to Leonardo in 1516, classified by the list of 1862 and again in 1914. It does not describe the grounds. The garden photographed here, with the château of Amboise on the skyline, is documented by the image and by the site’s presence in the Base Mérimée as a garden, not by the record’s text.
Recommendation
Whatever the record omits, this is the one garden where you can stand where Leonardo looked out.
Sources
Base Mérimée — immeubles protégés · PA00097504 — Licence Ouverte / Open Licence 2.0 (Etalab) — Ministère de la Culture, base Mérimée
Wikimedia Commons · https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Clos%20luce%2004.jpg — CC BY-SA 3.0
The château by this garden
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Château d’Amboise
The Royal Château of Amboise occupies a promontory above the Loire in Indre-et-Loire. It was a residence of the French court during the Renaissance and retains part of a much larger historic complex. The royal residence presents rooms associated with the Renaissance and with the nineteenth-century renewal under Louis-Philippe. The site also includes the Saint-Hubert chapel, identified by the château as Leonardo da Vinci’s burial place, and elevated gardens overlooking the river. The present visitor experience combines surviving buildings with interpretation of parts that have disappeared. The château and its grounds belong to the Loire Valley cultural landscape; that wider context is distinct from an individual World Heritage inscription for every building.
Château Gaillard
Château Gaillard is a château at Amboise, Indre-et-Loire, in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France. The recorded building campaign dates from the 16th century. It is protected as a monument historique at the second level (inscrit). Details are drawn from the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture.
Château de Pocé-sur-Cisse
Château de Pocé-sur-Cisse is a château at Pocé-sur-Cisse, Indre-et-Loire, in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France. The recorded building campaigns date from the 15th and 19th centuries. It is protected as a monument historique at the second level (inscrit). Details are drawn from the Base Mérimée of the French Ministry of Culture.