The royal estate of Château-Gaillard, commissioned by Charles VIII upon his return from the First Italian War, is located in Amboise in the Loire Valley. It includes, notably, a royal residence that is one of the Loire Valley châteaux and extends at the base of the southern slope of the Châteliers promontory, near the Clos-Lucé.
Château-Gaillard is a royal estate built for Charles VIII upon his return from the First Italian War in 1496. Admiring the Poggio Reale villa of Ferdinand the Catholic in Naples, he wished to have a comparable residence near his château in Amboise.
The Château-Gaillard estate served as a 'laboratory' for the French Renaissance: it was the first acclimatization garden in France, featuring the creation of the first royal orangery in France, the first Renaissance garden in France designed by Dom Pacello da Mercogliano, which included the first axial landscape perspective and the first 'French formal garden' parterres. It was also the first French adaptation of Italian Renaissance architecture, inspired by the Medici villas in Florence.
The royal estate of Château-Gaillard was listed as a historical monument in 1963 for its chapel and gardens located in front of the château. After five years of restoration, the estate was opened to the public in 2014.
Ogrodzieniec Castle is a ruined medieval castle originally built in the 14th–15th century by the W³odkowie Sulimczycy family. Established in the early 12th century, during the reign of Boles³aw III Wrymouth, the first stronghold was razed by the Tatars in 1241. In the mid-14th century a new gothic castle was built here to accommodate the Sulimczycy family. Surrounded by three high rocks, the castle was well integrated into the area. The defensive walls were built to close the circuit formed by the rocks, and a narrow opening between two of the rocks served as an entrance.
In 1470 the castle and lands were bought by the wealthy Cracovian townsmen, Ibram and Piotr Salomon. Then, Ogrodzieniec became the property of Jan Feliks Rzeszowski, the rector of Przemy¶l and the canon of Cracow. The owners of the castle about that time were also Jan and Andrzej Rzeszowskis, and later Pilecki and Che³miñski families. In 1523 the castle was bought by Jan Boner.