The Château d'Azay-le-Rideau stands on an island in the Indre river. Gilles Berthelot, mayor of Tours and royal treasurer, rebuilt it from 1518 on the site of a medieval fortress burned in 1418. The text says it was built between 1518 and 1527 but also says it was still incomplete in 1527, when Berthelot went into exile. The article names no 16th-century architect.
The style is French Renaissance with Italian Renaissance influence, on an L-shaped plan. It is built of Saint-Aignan stone with a slate roof. The central straight-flight staircase is the oldest surviving of its kind in France.
It was confiscated after Berthelot's exile and given to Antoine Raffin in 1535. The Swiss architect Pierre-Charles Dusillon led a 19th-century restoration. The French state bought it in 1905. It is a national monument and part of the Loire Valley UNESCO site.
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