ABSTRACT
The splendour of urban royal residences has intrigued visitors to European capitals since early modernity. These buildings’ enduring symbolic value was a key motivation for their construction, and even demolished structures like London’s Whitehall or Madrid’s Alcázar continue to influence the built environment. Throughout the long sixteenth century, curial itinerancy altered urban residences’ form and function. This was particularly true of the Louvre, whose residential role was overshadowed by the Loire Valley châteaux and, later, Versailles. Through comparisons to the urban palaces of England and the Holy Roman Empire – France’s primary dynastic rivals – this chapter investigates how royal tradition, the choice of site and magnificence assured the continuity of the Louvre’s symbolic power even as it was only sporadically inhabited.
