Château de Castelnaud

The Château de Castelnaud stands on a rocky spur, at Castelnaud-la-Chapelle, where the Céou valley joins that of the Dordogne. It faces the fortress of Beynac, its rival of old, and the two strongholds long embodied the rivalries of the Middle Ages in the region.

Construction probably dates from the late twelfth century. During the crusade against the Albigensians, Simon de Montfort seized it in 1214; the castle was burned the following year, then rebuilt in the thirteenth century under Capetian authority. It passed to the Caumont family in 1368 and changed hands several times during the Hundred Years' War, before being definitively acquired by the King of France in 1442. In the sixteenth century, Geoffroy de Vivans made it a Protestant bastion. After the Revolution, the building was abandoned, then restored from 1969.

You can see a thirteenth-century keep, a circular artillery tower of the early sixteenth century and a museum of medieval warfare, open since 1985. It brings together about 300 pieces from the thirteenth to seventeenth century and presents reconstructions of siege engines, such as trebuchets. The promontory offers an extensive view over the Dordogne valley.

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