The château began as a fortified manor in 1368, with a pentagonal bastioned footprint. The article names no architect and no style for the main building. The Marquis de Rambouillet held it under Louis XIII. Louis XVI bought it in 1783 from the Duke of Penthièvre and commissioned the Queen's dairy, the Laiterie de la Reine, in secret to win over Marie Antoinette. It has Sèvres porcelain buckets painted to imitate wood and a marble sculpture of Amalthea.
Under Napoleon the château lost its eastern wing, and a balcony linked his apartment to Marie-Louise's. Hurricane Lothar in December 1999 destroyed over 5,000 trees in the park.
It was a summer residence of French presidents from 1896 to 2009. The Centre des monuments nationaux manages it.
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