Parc du château de Fontainebleau, garden in Fontainebleau, France

The park of the Château de Fontainebleau covers 115 hectares in Fontainebleau, Île-de-France. It contains the Garden of Diana north of the castle, redesigned in the 19th century as an English garden, and the English Garden created in 1812 by architect Maximilien Joseph Hurtault on the site of Francis I's pine garden. The gardens are bordered to the east by the brick-and-stone Galerie des Cerfs wing and to the west by the Jeu de Paume.

The gardens began developing in the 16th century under several French kings who used the estate as a summer residence. During the 17th century, the renowned landscape designer Le Notre created the formal French garden with its long lines and symmetrical shapes, while a more natural English garden was added in the 19th century.

The Jardin de Diane takes its name from the Fontaine de Diane at its centre, commissioned by Henri IV in May 1603 from the engineer Tommaso Francini. The king had the ancient white marble statue then in the garden moved out the year before; it is now the Diana of Versailles in the Louvre. The bronze hounds and stag heads on the pedestal are by Pierre Biard the Elder.

The park covers 115 hectares, so plan your route before setting out. The Garden of Diana lies north of the castle, bordered east by the brick-and-stone Galerie des Cerfs wing and west by the Jeu de Paume. The English garden, with its artificial river, sits on the former Trinitarian monks' enclosure.

The Grotte des Pins, on the ground floor of the south-west pavilion of the Cour du Cheval Blanc, has rusticated arches on Atlantes carved as monstrous satyrs. Its architecture is attributed to Serlio or Primaticcio, with some influence of Giulio Romano, and was most likely built in 1545; the interior frescoes were finished only under Henry II. Two preparatory drawings in the Louvre show Primaticcio designed the painted vaults, restored in 1984-1986 and 2007.