The Palace of Fontainebleau stands near the town of the same name, about 60 kilometres south-east of Paris. A royal residence from François I, who made it his favourite home, down to Napoleon III, it bears the imprint of eight centuries of French rulers — which led Napoleon I to call it the 'house of the centuries'. It has been part of the UNESCO World Heritage List, together with its park, since 1981.
A castle at Fontainebleau is first mentioned in 1137, probably a modest fortified hunting lodge; a square keep from that era survives in the Oval Court. In the 16th century François I razed most of the medieval building and summoned Italian artists to create what he intended as a 'new Rome'. Their work gave rise to the School of Fontainebleau, the richest period of Renaissance art in France, whose influence on French painting lasted well into the 17th century.
