Fontainebleau alone can aspire to such a title. Indeed, no other royal castle in France can boast of having welcomed 34 sovereigns, from Louis VI “Le Gros” to Napoleon III.
 
All the French sovereigns have come to Fontainebleau. Autumn was the habitual hunting season and the Royal Court’s regular sojourn. The domain can thus be considered as their family house. Napoleon expressed it best: “here is the real abode of the kings, the house of centuries”, he said to Sainte-Hélène, recalling the place he had so dearly cherished.
 
Located at the end of the Brie plateau and close to Paris, which the Capetians had made their capital, the Fontainebleau forest had always been known as an exceptional hunting domain. Sovereigns thus cultivated here the art of hunting, a tradition that is still continued…
 
Fontainebleau’s name itself is related to stag-hunting, since according to legend the “Fontaine-Belle-Eau” (Beautiful Water Fountain) or the “Fontaine-Bliaut” is named after the owner of the dog, or the dog itself, which discovered it during a hunt. It was close to this fountain in a clearing at the forest’s heart that a first hunting rendezvous was established at an unknown date, but before 1137, as a charter of King Louis VII was recorded that year in Fontainebleau.
 
The kings rapidly settled into their new mansion: Philippe Auguste, Saint Louis and even Philippe “Le Bel”, who was born here in 1268 and died here following a riding accident. But it was only with François 1st that Fontainebleau took on its full importance as a Royal Place.

SIX SOVEREIGNS IN PARTICULAR MARKED THE HISTORY OF THE CASTLE

François 1st (1494-1547)
As he enjoyed staying in its « delicious deserts », it was he who gave the palace its general plan. Keeping only the ancient medieval dungeon, he asked Gilles Le Breton to create 2 groups of buildings: one on the ancient foundations which outlines the Oval Courtyard and the other around an immense courtyard named the Basse Cour (now Court of Farewells).

In the gallery that links them the king decided to carry out the most exceptional works, through the rivalry between the Florentine Rosso, a student of Michelangelo, and the Bolognese Primaticcio, disciple of Jules Romain. The result is one of the masterpieces of the French Renaissance and the manifesto of the first School of Fontainebleau. On the ground floor of his gallery, François 1st had Baths installed where he liked to come and admire his collections, including a painting already famous in the entire world: the Mona Lisa… The construction of the castle continued in the reign of his son, Henry II, who finished the Ballroom considered to be the other marvel of the Renaissance. Though the royal mistress Diane de Poitiers managed for a time to hand over the building and design works to Philibert Delorme, the queen Catherine de Medicis re-attributed them to her compatriot at the king’s death.

For practical information on the town (Town Hall website) :
 www.fontainebleau.fr
For information on the parish of St Louis de Fontainebleau :
 www.eglisefontainebleau.fr.st