| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
Over the centuries, it changed hands several times until the early part of the 20th century, when it was purchased by the French government and restored. The interior was completely refurbished with a collection of various Renaissance pieces. Today, the château is open to public visits.
The long low proportions and the sculptural decorations of Azay are Italianate , in the new antique taste, but the bastion corners capped by pointed cones, the vertical stacks of grouped windows separated by emphatic horizontal string courses, and the high sloped slate roof are unmistakably French. The playful fortifications and the medieval donjon towers gave an air of traditional nobility to the king's newly-ennobled treasurer.
The central staircase is the main feature a visitor meets with upon entering. It is embodied within the building, rather than rising helically, partly embedded in the wall and visible from outside, in the French way that is familiar at the Château de Blois.
The sculptural details at Azay are particularly remarkable. On the ground floor, fluted pilasters on high bases support the salamander and the ermine, emblems of François I and Claude de France.
The Romantic generation rediscovered the appeal of Azay-le-Rideau. Honoré de Balzac called it "a facetted diamond set in the Indre." ("Un diamant taillé à facettes, serti par l'Indre.") Now Azay-le-Rideau is surrounded by a distinctly 19th century parklike English landscape garden with many specimen trees, especially exotic conifers: Atlas cedar, bald cypressTaxodium Bald Cypress forest in a central Mississippi lake : Plantae : Pinophyta :Pinopsida : Pinales : Cupressaceae Taxodium Species Taxodium ascendens Pond Cypress : Taxodium distichum Bald Cypress : Taxodium mucronatum Montezuma Cypress : Taxodium is a and sequoiaSequoia is the name of three species of trees in the family Cupressaceae: Coast Redwood, Giant Sequoia, and Dawn Redwood; three publically-owned lands in the Sierra Nevadas with Giant Sequoia groves: Sequoia National Park, Sequoia National Forest, and Gias from the New World.