Domaine Royal Château Gaillard

Renaissance Garden

The Domaine Royal Château Gaillard takes you into the sublime and reveals a little-known facet of these founding years of French history.

Château Gaillard, the Italian dream of a young king of France

In the heart of the town of Amboise, Château Gaillard is the most Italian of the Loire Châteaux. Cradle of the Italian Renaissance in France in 1500, it embodied the waking dream of a young king after the discovery of “so many new beauties” during the first Italian campaign.

The estate was built for Charles VIII and Anne of Brittany by the most famous master gardener in Europe in 1500 Pacello de Mercoliano.

It hosted the first Renaissance Gardens, the first Orange trees and the first Orangery in France

From Dom Pacello to Marie Stuart

Pacello de Mercoliano was Master Gardener to the King of Naples and created the royal gardens of Poggio Reale on the azure bay in front of Vesuvius.

Accompanied by a squad of 22 artegiani returning to Amboise, Pacello founded for the king of France the earthly paradise in the valley to the south of Château Gaillard, divinely watered by springs and rivers.

This brilliant monk who arrived 20 years earlier than Leonardo da Vinci, his immediate neighbor, created “Les Jardins du Roy”, an Italian palazotto reproducing the soft and wonderful atmosphere of Italian palaces. He created an open-air laboratory, created the orange tree potting box, transplanted the limonaia into a cave, cultivated the orange trees in troglodytes and acclimatized them in France for the first time here, invented the parquet landscape, mineral mulch … His “Arte del Verde”, geometric division of the landscape stands out as a new perspective and is axonometric in front of the castle…

The place, a royal resort, pleased the three Kings of the Renaissance Charles VIII, Louis XII, François 1° and Pacello de Mercoliano also knew how to please their Queens Anne of Brittany, Claude of France for whom the brilliant Neapolitan monk created the Reine Claude plum …

The illustrious succeed one another in this joyful residence: René de Savoie, uncle of François ^I and conqueror of Marignan, Cardinal de Guise the most powerful man in Europe, René de Villequier grand chamberlain and vice prime minister of Henri III in are owners.

Then Mary Stuart, Queen of France and Scotland came to spend a few weeks there during her honeymoon with François II, King of France and son of Catherine de Medici.

The King's Gardens

The 15-hectare estate in the middle of the city was rediscovered, forgotten and buried under vegetation in 2012; it was the subject of a titanic restoration campaign by 350 artisans and 17 crafts and is open to the public all year round.

It is an orange tree conservatory with 300 trees and 85 varieties.

The public is invited to stroll through the seven paths of Paradise on the hillside, to explore the centuries-old forest and to cool off at the Gallo-Roman spring. He will be able to enjoy the belvederes and the breathtaking view of the Jardins du Roy. The area is also full of underground treasures, such as the olfactory cave or the mysterious devil’s cave.
The Jardins du Roy at Château Gaillard are much more than just a garden. They are an initiatory and sensory experience, a dive into the lost paradise of the Italian-French Renaissance.