Clos Lucé

Amboise, France

Clos Lucé is a mansion in Amboise, France, located 500 metres from the royal Château d'Amboise, to which it is connected by an underground passageway. Built by Hugues d'Amboise in the middle of the fifteenth century, it was acquired in 1490 by Charles VIII of France for his wife, Anne de Bretagne. Later, it was used by Francis I, as well as his sister Marguerite de Navarre, who began writing her book entitled L'Heptaméron while living there.

In 1516, Francis I invited Leonardo da Vinci to Amboise and provided him with the Clos Lucé, then called Château de Cloux, as a place to stay and work. Leonardo, a famous painter and inventor, arrived with three of his paintings, namely the Mona Lisa, Sainte Anne, and Saint Jean Baptiste. Leonardo lived at the Clos Lucé for the last three years of his life, and died there on 2 May 1519.

Today, the Clos Lucé is a museum that reflects the prestigious history of the region and includes forty models of the various machines designed by Leonardo.

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Address

Rue du Clos Luce 2, Amboise, France
See all sites in Amboise

Details

Founded: 1490
Category: Palaces, manors and town halls in France

More Information

vinci-closluce.com
en.wikipedia.org
www.chateaux-france.com

Rating

4.4/5 (based on Google user reviews)

Interesting Sites Nearby


Château d'Amboise (0,6 km)
Post Museum (0,6 km)
Pagode de Chanteloup (2,7 km)
St. Denis' Church (1 km)


Château de Chenonceau (11,2 km)
Château de Villandry (36,8 km)
Château de Blois (32,1 km)
Tours Cathedral (22,5 km)
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours (22,5 km)
Château de Chaumont (16,2 km)
Tours Old Town (23,4 km)
Château de Cheverny (36,4 km)
Basilica of St. Martin (23,3 km)

User Reviews

Nayantara Ghag (2 years ago)
It was very informative, scientific for kids. Many models were displayed for kids to see the working of the inventions done by Leonardo Da Vinci. A must visit!!
Francois & Pam BELORGEY (2 years ago)
Such a beautiful garden to stroll, very interactive and very much highly recommended to go here for a visit. We were lucky to see Mona Lisa amongst the Autumn leaves(as well as the real painting at the Louvre of course)
Imogen Hall (2 years ago)
Quite a big queue to get in, and almost too many people to really enjoy the essence of each room. We felt quite packed in! Having said that, lots of little nooks to sit down in and lovely house to visit.
Robert Kernahan (2 years ago)
A great bit of history and well maintained. It was absolutely packed when we went and we got trapped in a room a few times with so many people coming in and out the door. Overall pretty good but don't go at the busy times.
Don Whinney (2 years ago)
Fantastic visit. House and gardens well laid out and very interesting. Clean and tidy. Well worth the money, unlike the nearby Pagoda. Don't go there, it's a rip off! Go to Chateau du Close and be pleasantly educated.
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Cochem Castle

The original Cochem Castle, perched prominently on a hill above the Moselle River, served to collect tolls from passing ships. Modern research dates its origins to around 1100. Before its destruction by the French in 1689, the castle had a long and fascinating history. It changed hands numerous times and, like most castles, also changed its form over the centuries.

In 1151 King Konrad III ended a dispute over who should inherit Cochem Castle by laying siege to it and taking possession of it himself. That same year it became an official Imperial Castle (Reichsburg) subject to imperial authority. In 1282 it was Habsburg King Rudolf’s turn, when he conquered the Reichsburg Cochem and took it over. But just 12 years later, in 1294, the newest owner, King Adolf of Nassau pawned the castle, the town of Cochem and the surrounding region in order to finance his coronation. Adolf’s successor, Albrecht I, was unable to redeem the pledge and was forced to grant the castle to the archbishop in nearby Trier and the Electorate of Trier, which then administered the Reichsburg continuously, except for a brief interruption when Trier’s Archbishop Balduin of Luxembourg had to pawn the castle to a countess. But he got it back a year later.

The Electorate of Trier and its nobility became wealthy and powerful in large part due to the income from Cochem Castle and the rights to shipping tolls on the Moselle. Not until 1419 did the castle and its tolls come under the administration of civil bailiffs (Amtsmänner). While under the control of the bishops and electors in Trier from the 14th to the 16th century, the castle was expanded several times.

In 1688 the French invaded the Rhine and Moselle regions of the Palatinate, which included Cochem and its castle. French troops conquered the Reichsburg and then laid waste not only to the castle but also to Cochem and most of the other surrounding towns in a scorched-earth campaign. Between that time and the Congress of Vienna, the Palatinate and Cochem went back and forth between France and Prussia. In 1815 the western Palatinate and Cochem finally became part of Prussia once and for all.

Louis Jacques Ravené (1823-1879) did not live to see the completion of his renovated castle, but it was completed by his son Louis Auguste Ravené (1866-1944). Louis Auguste was only two years old when construction work at the old ruins above Cochem began in 1868, but most of the new castle took shape from 1874 to 1877, based on designs by Berlin architects. After the death of his father in 1879, Louis Auguste supervised the final stages of construction, mostly involving work on the castle’s interior. The castle was finally completed in 1890. Louis Auguste, like his father, a lover of art, filled the castle with an extensive art collection, most of which was lost during the Second World War.

In 1942, during the Nazi years, Ravené was forced to sell the family castle to the Prussian Ministry of Justice, which turned it into a law school run by the Nazi government. Following the end of the war, the castle became the property of the new state of Rheinland-Pfalz (Rhineland-Palatinate). In 1978 the city of Cochem bought the castle for 664,000 marks.

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