Photo : Guyotalice / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Château de Bridoire
The château de Bridoire is at Ribagnac, in the Dordogne, on a rocky spur bordered by the Gardonnette and the Grimoudou. Its name appears as early as the twelfth century in an abbey cartulary. Seized by the Protestants in 1560, it was largely destroyed in 1568, rebuilt, then dismantled again in 1649 on the orders of the duke of Épernon. It was built between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries.
The château consists of two residential wings at right angles, four round machicolated towers, a square tower, an entrance gatehouse, a well and a half-timbered dovecote on stone pillars.
Sold to a Senegalese company in 1978, it suffered looting, before the safeguarding association, created in 1989, obtained its listing in 1992. Bought back in 2011 by Michel and Catherine Guyot, restored, it opened to the public on 1 July 2012 and offers visits, as well as seasonal activities such as night visits and games.
