Vacations Destinations

Chateau du Clos Luce is where Leonard da Vinci spent the last 3 years of his life. King Francois I invited him and he gifted Chateau du Clos Luce to Leonardo together with a pension of 700 golden crowns per annum.

The King encouraged discussion, experimentation and much thought at Clos Luce. In this pretty chateau, he happily continued to paint, sketch, and work as an engineer, architect, and festival organizer for the court. Francois I found great pleasure in listening to Leonardo.

Da Vinci arrived at Amboise over 60 years old with his disciple da Melzi and three paintings, Saint Anne, Saint John the Baptist which he finished at Clos Luce and the Mona Lisa.

In a corner of the basement is an entrance to the underground passage connecting Chateau Amboise with Clos Luce, giving Francois I a direct link to the Leonardo’s home.

The chateau is open to tourists every day of the year except Christmas Day and New Years Day.

It is situated on a quiet back street of Amboise, a town south of the Loire River between Tours and Blois about 2 hours from Paris by train. The village street has troglodyte houses opposite built into the limestone cliff face.

Da Vinci’s chateau is not large, but it is warm, inviting and personable. You get a sense of his life in the early 16th century as you wander unescorted throughout the sparsely decorated chateau. The chateau is surrounded by a magnificent treed park with a bubbling brook and peaceful pond with paddle boats available to hire. There is a small formal Renaissance garden in the courtyard behind the chateau with perfumed roses and clipped box hedges. It is peaceful, ideal for bird watching, conversation and quiet contemplation.

You can visit his study, salons, kitchen and bedrooms, the chapel and see frescoes painted by his pupils. Renaissance artifacts, paintings, tapestries, and furniture adorn the rooms which have high, timbered ceilings, huge fireplaces and well worn plank flooring.

There is a large four poster canopied bed in Leonardo’s bedroom swayed with gold and red fabric. Cherubs are carved into the dark wood on his bed.

It is most likely that the yellow salon bathed in light, functioned as studio space for Leonardo. It is probably here that he finished his painting of John the Baptist.

The kitchen has a huge fire big enough to spit-roast a wild boar whole. In winter Leonardo would have warmed himself beside this fire.

His paintings and drawings are set out in the park of the chateau with giant models of the most spectacular machines he invented with voice-overs of Leonardo da Vinci and his disciple Melzi.

Downstairs in the basement, 40 models made by IBM from Leonardo’s drawings are displayed. These military, naval, hydraulic, mechanical, and aeronautical inventions demonstrate his sheer genius. Many of these designs were envisioned centuries before they were first constructed. Devices such as swing bridges, a machine gun, a flying machine and an automobile all show sound principles of design.

“A well filled day gives a good sleep. A well filled life gives a peaceful death.” After only three years in Amboise, he died on May 2, 1519 and is buried in the Chapelle St. Hubert on the chateau’s grounds

We run Chateau du Guerinet a luxury french wedding castle in the Loire Valley near Blois. Our wedding castle is perfect for a fantastic french holiday with family and friends and for touring vineyards, historic chateaux and unwinding. It is also a fairytale castle wedding.