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A museum about the First Empire: The Napoleon I Museum

If the term ‘gallery’ corresponds to a room providing a link between two spaces, in this case the Plate Gallery and the Pope’s apartment, the term ‘splendour’ refers to Napoleon III’s desire to bring together, in this new space opening onto the Grands Appartements, a collection of paintings that would evoke the most important historical events in the history of the Château.

After the Grands Appartements of the Sovereigns, this eleven-room guest apartment is the most sumptuous living space in the palace.

The Plate Gallery was created during the reign of Louis-Philippe I in 1840, where an old terrace once stood

Located on the first floor of a building linking the keep’s dwelling to the chapel of the convent of the Trinitaires, the François Ist Gallery is the most emblematic Renaissance room at the Château de Fontainebleau.

Emperor Napoleon’s former inner drawing room, it is the first really ornate room after the antechamber and shows a marked difference compared to the rest of the apartments

Napoleon Istsigned the Act of Abdication between 4th and 6th April 1814.

Originally Emperor Napoleon’s private library, this room was transformed into a small bedroom on his orders.

This is the most important room in the apartment. Built into Louis XVI’s former ‘powder room’ (used for washing), this stately room was richly refurbished in 1808 with a sculpted and gilded bed flanked on each corner by columns with pedestals representing the figures of Nobility, Glory, Abundance and Justice.

The King’s bedchamber no longer looks like it did in the Ancien Régime: after the Revolution, in 1808, Napoleon I turned it into a Throne room, which was used until the Second Empire.

Marie Antoinette liked to “bouder” or sulk about court pageantry and withdraw to this small boudoir with its exceptionally refined décor.

Former bedroom of the queens of France, it was used by all the kings’ wives one after the other, from Marie de Medici to Marie Antoinette.

This room was, in the 16th century, the bedroom of Queen Eleanor of Austria, the wife of Francis I.

This room was formerly the Queen’s guard room, before being turned into an antechamber.

Originally called the ‘Queen’s Gallery’ because it is located in the sovereign’s apartment, the ‘Diana Gallery’ is the longest room in the castle (80 metres long by 6 metres wide).

This vast room was for the king’s guards, who watched over the entrance to the monarch’s apartment.

Favourite of François Ist, Anne de Pisseleu, Duchess ofÉtampes, benefited from a room located immediately next to the king.

Situated on the first floor of the Porte Dorée, under the carved coffered ceiling of a Renaissance loggia, Madam de Maintenon’s apartment has kept this name in memory of the second wife of Louis XIV who lived there in 1686.

This sumptuous ballroom located between the Oval Court and the gardens, features pillars wrapped in oak panelling with fluted pilaster columns and is one of the most remarkable rooms in the Château de Fontainebleau.

The oldest royal chapel at the Château de Fontainebleau is the Oval Courtyard, which is also known as Saint Saturnin..

Formerly the Queen’s private garden, this garden is bordered by the monarchs’ most intimate spaces (the Empress’ Petits Appartements and Marie Antoinette’s Turkish boudoir). Until the 19th century, this garden was enclosed by buildings. When they were demolished, and an adjoining strip of land was purchased, it was extended towards the town. Redesigned in the style of an English landscape garden and planted with remarkable trees such as a Catalpa and an American tulip tree, it takes its name from a fountain decorated with a statue of Diana the Huntress. The only surviving highly embellished fountain created under Henry IV, it stands in the centre of a circular tiered pond. On the bottom of the pedestal supporting the majestic goddess armed with her quiver, four bronze stag heads, by Pierre Biard, and four dogs, are a reminder that Fontainebleau was considered to be the “Temple of Diana”, a hunting ground highly prized by the monarchs.
Diana Garden at the château de Fontainebleau

One of the earliest examples of an artificial grotto in France, the “grotte des pins” is at the end of the Louis XV wing built on the site of the Ulysses gallery wing. Built in the early 1540s to mark the entrance to Francis I’s Jardin des Pins, this Italian style mannerist grotto, undoubtedly designed by Primaticcio, features three arches hewn out of sandstone blocks in a rustic fashion. The columns consist of monumental Atlantes which, imprisoned in stone, represent the forces of surrounding nature, yielding “to the miracles of art” (Malherbe).

This English style landscape garden was designed by Hurtault, who also designed the Grille d’Honneur, in 1810-1812. While we know that Napoleon I did not particularly like this style of garden, it was however, very fashionable at the time. Planted with rare trees from around the world and featuring narrow, winding paths, it is traversed by an artificial river and still contains, in its secret nooks and crannies, the “fontaine Belle-Eau” after which the château is named, and whose spring was a constant source of pride for the monarchs. There follows a series of gardens created since the reign of Francis I in this western part of the estate on land claimed from monks, including the famous Jardin des Pins.

Facing south, the carp pond owes its name to the famous carp which have been at Fontainebleau since Henry IV. To the east, the water in the pond is held back by a dike that was called “Chaussée de l’étang” before it was renamed “Allée de Maintenon”. In the 16th century, this 6 hectare expanse of water, created in the Middle Ages to drain water from the gardens, was the setting for sumptuous water-borne festivities at the Valois Court. The octagonal pavilion was built by Louis Le Vau under Louis XIV, in 1662, and restored in 1807, during the refurbishments prior to the creation of the English garden. It was built to line up with the Grand Canal and the Grand Parterre, opening up a wide vista to the east.

The creation of the Grand Parterre between 1660 and 1664 – the largest in Europe (14 hectares) – by André Le Nôtre and Louis Le Vau, reflects Louis XIV’s desire for open spaces at Fontainebleau. The box hedges in this French-style formal garden disappeared under Louis XV. All that remains is the general layout of the grass sections, the water features adorned with statues, including the Bassin des Cascades (17th and 19th centuries), facing east towards Henry IV’s Canal. In 1817, a square pool, known as the “pot bouillant” was added to its centre while to the south, on the forest side, a statue of the Tiber was added to the round pool. Since the time of Louis XIV, four sandstone sphinxes, goddesses with the bodies of lions sculpted by Lespagnandelle in 1664, have marked the boundary between the Parterre and the park.

Extending beyond the stepped Bassin des Cascades, the park previously marked – to the east – the limits of the royal estate. From the village of Avon, it was crossed by the main access road to the château. Its current layout, arranged in a network of cascades and radiating pathways, dates from the creation of the canal (1,200 metres long and 40 metres wide) under Henry IV (1606-1609). Originally planted with over sixty thousand trees where rows of silver poplars, oak and fruit trees grew, this “enclosed park” and its canal were the pride and joy of the king, who followed its construction closely. In 1609, it took over a week to fill it with water and in the autumn, the king sailed on it.