Catherine de’ Medici at Chenonceau: a gallery on another woman’s bridge

The short version: when Henri II died in 1559, his widow Catherine de’ Medici forced his favourite Diane de Poitiers to exchange Chenonceau for Chaumont. She then built the thing the château is famous for: a gallery 60 metres long and 6 metres wide with eighteen windows, built 1576 and inaugurated 1577 — on the bridge Diane had commissioned. She also laid out the 5,500 m² garden that carries her name, and worked as Regent of France from the Green Cabinet on the ground floor.

Took the château1559

Built the gallery1576

Inaugurated1577

Gallery60 m by 6 m

Her garden5,500 m²

Her workroomThe Green Cabinet

The exchange

Henri II died in 1559. Diane de Poitiers had held Chenonceau since he gave it to her after 1547 and had owned it formally since 1555. Catherine forced the swap for Chaumont — a good château, and not this one — and moved in. It is worth being plain about the order of events, because the gallery is often described as though Catherine put a bridge across the river. She did not. Diane built the bridge; Catherine built on it.

The gallery

Built 1576, inaugurated 1577, per the operator’s guide leaflet: sixty metres by six, eighteen windows, two long walls of light over moving water. It is the room people come for, and its full story — including what its two doors meant in the Second World War — is on the gallery page.

A mown path between tall clipped yew hedges in the labyrinth — Her garden runs to 5,500 m². The labyrinth beyond it is two thousand yews over more than a hectare.

Her rooms

Two on the operator’s route are hers. The Green Cabinet on the ground floor, which the leaflet identifies as her workroom while she was Regent of France, and her bedroom on the first floor, next to the Chamber of the Five Queens. The Green Cabinet is a few paces from Diane’s bedroom, which is either an accident of planning or the most pointed piece of interior design in the Loire.

Her garden

5,500 m², arranged round a circular basin, and smaller than the 12,000 m² parterre Diane left behind. They face each other across the entrance drive. See the gardens.

One thing this page will not do

Explain a nickname. People arrive here searching for why Catherine de’ Medici was called the Black Queen, and the sources this site is built on — the operator’s leaflet and the encyclopedia articles on the château — do not use that name or account for it, so this page does not either. The colour name that does appear in the operator’s own material belongs to somebody else: Louise de Lorraine, the White Queen, whose room is on the second floor and who is in the sequence on the Ladies.

Insider tip

If you want the two women in one look, stand in the middle of the gallery. The floor you are on is Catherine’s and the arches under it are Diane’s, and the kitchens are inside those arches — the kitchens.

Book the admission

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before departure on most tours — book now, decide later.

Frequently asked questions

Which castle did Catherine de’ Medici live in?

Chenonceau, from 1559. After Henri II’s death she forced Diane de Poitiers to exchange it for Chaumont, and she built the gallery over the Cher, finished in 1576 and inaugurated in 1577.

Did Catherine de’ Medici build the bridge at Chenonceau?

No. Diane de Poitiers commissioned the bridge from Philibert de l’Orme in the 1550s. Catherine built the gallery on top of it.

Why was Catherine de’ Medici called the Black Queen?

This site has no source for that name. The operator’s own material uses no such name for her; the White Queen in this house is Louise de Lorraine, widow of Henri III.