Château de Chamerolles, Renaissance castle in Chilleurs-aux-Bois, France.

Château de Chamerolles is a quadrilateral castle with a large cylindrical tower at each corner, built of Beauce limestone coated with lime and of red and black brick, and roofed in slate. Its east side has a gatehouse flanked by two turrets pierced with gun loops, and the whole is surrounded by moats. The west wing held the seigneurial residence, and the courtyard contains a well with a dome and a Renaissance gallery.

Around 1520, Lancelot I du Lac, chamberlain to Louis XII and later bailli of Orléans under Francis I, built the castle on the site of an older fortified house. He kept the medieval fortress outline but designed it as a residence. His grandson Lancelot II turned Protestant in 1562, and a Protestant temple was installed in the chapel around 1570.

The Promenade des Parfums exhibition shows how bathing habits and fragrance use changed from the 1500s to today. Walking through the rooms, you discover what people actually did and how these customs shifted over centuries.

The castle sits roughly 45 minutes north of Orléans and welcomes visitors through guided tours, with parking for both cars and buses. The property also has a shop and spaces available for private events.

During restoration work, Protestant inscriptions were found in the former chapel. These discoveries reveal that people of different faiths lived and worshipped inside the castle.