Château de Chambord

The largest and most architecturally distinctive château in the Loire Valley, rising from the flat Sologne forest with 440 rooms and a forest of Renaissance chimneys and towers crowning its roofline. Its double-helix staircase, attributed in design concept to Leonardo da Vinci, spirals within an open lantern tower at the centre of the donjon. The surrounding 5,440-hectare hunting estate remains the largest walled park in Europe.