Exterior view

Delorme realized some very innovative ideas in the chapel at Anet and in the entrance pavilion, both of which still stand. The chapel, a rotunda with four arms forming a Greek cross, is based on the tepidarium of the Baths of Diocletian in Rome and on an unexecuted design by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger for the Medici Chapel at Montecassino. The remarkable coffering of the dome, made up of intersecting arcs of circles, is repeated in two dimensions on the marble pavement.

In addition to its importance as a highly original synthesis of French, Italian and antique architectural ideas, Anet shares with Lescot’s Louvre the distinction of being the first French château in which the rich decoration followed a coherent iconographic programme, its central theme of Diana and Apollo alluding to Diane de Poitiers and Henry II.

View the ground plan of the chapel.