The Park

 This 5,440 ha estate, surrounded by a 32km wall, contains the largest enclosed forest park in Europe. Its surface area is practically the same size as Inner Paris (boulevard des Maréchaux).

Construction of the wall, which began in the latter years of François I’s reign (1542), was completed under Gaston d’Orléans, Louis XIII’s brother (1642). Perfectly looked after today, it is an impassable barrier for large animals: six gates have been kept for people to get in and out.

The estate has had a great many owners and usufructuaries who undertook forest actions, some more successful than others. Most of the forest is very recent as more than half of the grounds in 1820 were not wooded: 23 farms, moors and marshes covered the northern half of the estate at one time.

François I used to come and hunt stag here, and this great cynegetic tradition is still going strong today. Listed as a National Hunting and Wild Game Reserve in 1947, the Estate is now home to all the representatives of Sologne fauna, including stag and boar which are the symbolic species of Chambord
.