Fontainebleau tells a beautiful story through the ages, where the castle succeeded in keeping the artefacts and the atmosphere felt during each reign whether royal or imperial.
More than 800 years old, the château de Fontainebleau was brought to light by King François I who settled down his royal court and started reconstructing and expanding a then medieval castle. Under the golden age that was the Renaissance, many Italian major artists were brought to the king’s side, including Leonardo da Vinci. Henri the 4th followed his attempt in the 17th century by contributing to the expansion by with the magnificent park and the gardens. Surrounded by France’s 2nd biggest forest, Fontainebleau is a domain of 110 square miles.
After France’s Revolution in late 1780s, the castle was not destroyed but emptied. It’s only after Napoleon’s rise to the imperial throne that he settled down in Fontainebleau. Once more occupied, Napoleon refurbished it in 19 days, to welcome Pope’s arrival with whom power struggles were happening. Many years after, this is where the sàe pope Pie VII is kept captive after his kidnapping. Decades later, Napoleon the IIIrd and his wife Eugénie contributed to the expansion of the glorious castle, by adding interior decors of the era, and replaced the famous French tree gardens by wild flowers, still present now.
Kept hidden from the public’s sight, even forgotten, the imperial theater is an architectural prowess by Hector-Martin Lefuel. Designed under the Emperor Napoleon the IIIrd, it has been restituted, as artists reworked and repaired the authentic pieces.
Open to all for the first time, the theater welcomes the public since September 2014 while sustaining the atmosphere of imperial exclusive nights, which welcomed Queen Victoria and Buffalo Bill. The room, which is 20 meters high, was reopened during the Nazi occupation and transformed into a cinema by and for German soldiers. In January 2017, the 450-seats theater will have representations open to the public once a month.
Originally published on my blog.
Join the readers of Copious Copy — A series of letters between the Earth and you: a weekly cosmos of words about metaphysics and enlightenment, through science and spirituality, get on the list and be the conversation.
