Photo : Joel camelot / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)
Château de Blanquefort
The medieval fortress of Blanquefort, in the Gironde, stands about a kilometre south of the town, on a rocky islet amid the marshes. It protected Bordeaux and controlled the Médoc road. Mentioned in the early eleventh century, it is considered the oldest attested stone castle in the Gironde.
The kings of England acquired it in 1254 and 1270 and made it a royal fortress with six round towers and a stone enclosure; the Black Prince stayed there. After the Hundred Years' War, Charles VII adapted it to artillery. The Durfort-Duras family held it until the Revolution. Mazarin had its crenellations removed after the Fronde; burned, abandoned then worked as a quarry, it fell into ruin.
Excavations carried out since 1962 have yielded ceramics, coins, military objects and a set of fourteenth-century floor tiles. The remains have been protected as historic monuments since 1862.
