From the outside, the Château de Chambord, France’s second-most visited castle after Versailles, is a stirring symmetrical symphony of angles and curves—a paragon of Italian Renaissance architecture. Inside, however, the building’s decay is growing dire. Now, Chambord has followed in the footsteps of Notre-Dame by launching a campaign to crowdsource €30 million ($35 million) for repairs.

Construction on this UNESCO World Heritage Site started in 1519, four years after Francis I became king. The reputed ‘Father and Restorer of Letters’ who ushered in the French Renaissance initally envisioned this palace as a hunting lodge. At nearly 13,500 acres it remains Europe’s largest enclosed estate, situated on a marshy ecological hotspot fed by the Loire Valley’s Cosson River.

The spiral staircase at the heart of Chateau de Chambord, purportedly designed by Leonardo da Vinci. Photo: Sylvain Sonnet via Getty Images.

Unfortunately, these lush environs are causing problems for the 426-room castle—particularly its François I Wing, built from 1539 to 1545 near the estate’s wettest part, its moat. Here, Francis I enjoyed a bit of royal seclusion, away from the six floors of flats that surround the castle’s famed central double helix staircase. Alternating bouts of flooding and drought have disrupted the foundation underpinning the king’s wing, leading to warped walls, cracks, and holes that have started impacting the castle beyond.

These intensifying deficiencies have been visible for two decades. They reached a fever pitch, though, when 20 people fell through the floor in 2023. Luckily, nobody sustained major injuries.

Pierre Dubreuil came on as director general that same year. He shuttered large swaths of Chambord’s François I Wing last summer, and launched the current fundraising campaign to help restore the space in September. Even though the castle generates its own profits through admissions, the astronomical cost of labor required to save it dwarfs what even the debt-saddled French government can offer. “It is very clearly the project of the century at Chambord,” Dubreuil recently remarked. Alas, despite the rising popularity of the castle, which welcomed 1.2 million visitors last year, “we rank only 15th on the heritage budget list,” Dubreuil said.

Francis I’s bedchamber in the Chateau de Chambord. Photo: DeAgostini/Getty Images.

Dubreuil has already secured the €12 million required for the three-part restoration’s first phase, which will shore up the most critical structural areas starting this year. Half of the funds come from the castle’s own coffers. French agencies have contributed the rest. After that, the €15 million Phase Two will bring a complete restoration, including an elevator for disabled visitors. Then, the €10 million Phase Three will bring fresh educational routes and a new auditorium, transforming Chambord into a Renaissance hub.

The castle is encouraging donations by allowing contributions as small as €20, and offering an enhanced tax write off of 75 percent (rather than the standard 66 percent) for donations under €1,000. At present, the campaign has raised just over ten percent of its target. The François I Wing is slated to reopen in 2032.