Chateau de Chenonceau built over the Cher River

Masterpiece of the Renaissance, the Château de Chenonceau is famous for its beautiful gallery of arches on the River Cher. The Château de Chenonceau is a French château near the small village of Chenonceaux in the Indre-et-Loire département of the Loire Valley in France. It is often described as ‘the ladies chateau’ as throughout its history it is they who have most influenced its design and its destiny. Chenonceau was built on the site of an earlier property. A manor house that was burned to the ground in 1411 was followed by a fortified castle, but that too was destroyed to make way for the chateau we currently see, built between 1515 and 1521 by Thomas Bohier, overseen by his wife Katherine Briconnet.

credit: archer10 (Dennis)