Photo : Florent Pécassou / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Château de Mauvezin
The château de Mauvezin, in the Hautes-Pyrénées, is a medieval fortress overlooking the plain. A stronghold of the counts of Bigorre, it was retaken from the English in 1373 by the duke of Anjou, then given to the count of Armagnac. Gaston Fébus, prince of Foix and Béarn, obtained it through his marriage to Beatrice of Armagnac and restored it around 1380. After the union of Bigorre with the crown in 1607, it was abandoned and its stones reused.
A rectangular enclosure surrounds an inner courtyard; the crenellated keep, with its wall-walk, houses exhibitions. Gaston Fébus's arms appear above the main gate.
Restored in 1906, listed as a historic monument in 1941, it houses a Musée de France devoted to Gaston Fébus, temporary exhibitions and replicas of war machines in the courtyard.
