Château du Clos Lucé

The Château du Clos Lucé is a small château in the city of Amboise, France. The place is famous for being the official residence of Leonardo da Vinci between 1516 and 1519.

Clos Lucé is located at 500 metres from the royal Château d'Amboise, to which it is connected by an underground passageway. Built by Hugues d'Amboise in the middle of the fifteenth century, it was acquired in 1490 by Charles VIII of France for his wife, Anne de Bretagne. Later, it was used by Francis I, as well as his sister Marguerite de Navarre, who began writing her book entitled L'Heptaméron while living there.

In 1516, King Francis I of France invited Leonardo da Vinci to Amboise and provided him with the Clos Lucé, then called Château de Cloux, as a place to stay and work. Leonardo, a famous painter and inventor, arrived with three of his paintings, namely the Mona Lisa, Sainte Anne, and Saint Jean Baptiste. Leonardo lived at the Clos Lucé for the last three years of his life, and died there on 2 May 1519.

Today, the Clos Lucé is a Leonardo da Vinci museum that reflects the prestigious history of the region and includes forty models of the various machines designed by Leonardo.

The twenty closest neighbours in the database:

Château de Chenonceau (11 km), Château de Blois (32 km), Château de Chambord (46 km), Château de Sully-sur-Loire (111 km), Guédelon (164 km), Château de Vitré (183 km), Paris (France) (190 km), Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport (212 km), La Rochelle (France) (214 km), Le Mont-Saint-Michel (France) (230 km), Abbey of Fontenay (256 km), Château de Josselin (272 km), Sarlat-la-Canéda (France) (281 km), Amiens (France) (293 km), Beaune (France) (294 km), Rocamadour (France) (294 km), Reims (France) (304 km), Dijon (France) (305 km), Royal Saltworks at Arc-et-Senans (364 km), Côte de Granit Rose (368 km)

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