Palace of Fontainebleau
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How it came to be
The earliest record of a royal residence at Fontainebleau dates from 1137, under Louis VII. Rich in game and springs, the forest made it a favourite autumn residence and hunting lodge of French kings, and the name comes from a nearby spring, the Fontaine Belle-Eau. The first castle was a three-storey square keep, and that tower, remodelled over the centuries, still stands in the Oval Court.
From about 1528 Francis I rebuilt the castle on a grand scale and brought the architect Sebastiano Serlio and the painter Rosso Fiorentino from Italy. From 1533 Rosso decorated the Gallery of Francis I with murals framed in high-relief stucco, later joined by Francesco Primaticcio of Bologna. Their mix of painting and sculpture became known as the first School of Fontainebleau and helped launch the French Renaissance, and under Henry IV a second School of Fontainebleau decorated the interiors.
In 1804 Napoleon met Pope Pius VII here, when the pope had come from Rome to crown him emperor, and from 1812 to 1814 the palace served as the pope's place of detention. Napoleon abdicated at Fontainebleau in April 1814, and on 20 April he said farewell to the Old Guard in the Court of Honour. The palace became a national museum in 1927 and was inscribed in 1981.
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