In 1495, Charles VIII invaded the kingdom of Naples, and he and his court saw the luxury of the palaces and gardens in Italy. When he returned to France, he brought back with him a number of Italian artists, including priest and garden designer from Naples named Pacello da Mercogliano. Charles ordered the addition of Renaissance features to his royal residence of the Château d'Amboise on the banks of the Loire. Mercogliano extended the terrace of the château, surrounded it by galleries, and laid out four parterres around a central pavilion.[7]
At the beginning of the 16th century, King Francis I, who had also visited Italy and had met Leonardo da Vinci, built gardens in the new style on three terraces of different levels bordered by the old walls of his Château de Blois. Besides the parterres of flowers, the gardens produced a wide variety of vegetables and fruits, including orange and lemon trees in boxes, which were taken indoors in winter. The building that sheltered them, still standing, was the first orangerie in France. The gardens were on the site of the present-day Place Victor-Hugo and the site of the railways station. The last vestiges of the garden were destroyed in 1890 by the construction of the Avenue Victor-Hugo.