France · 11th century
The Château de Biron is a castle in the valley of the Lède in the commune of Biron in the Dordogne département of France.
It was the castle from which the Gontaut-Biron took their name, their seat from the twelfth century. Biron was seized by the Cathars in 1211 and retaken by Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester the following year. The Plantagenets held it at times during the 14th and 15th centuries. Biron was erected as a duché-pairie in 1598, for Charles de Gontaut, created duc de Biron.
The present château bears additions over the centuries that make a picturesque ensemble: a twelfth-century keep, sixteenth-century living quarters, a chapel and vaulted kitchens. The commune purchased the Château de Biron in 1978, with a view to restoring the structure as a tourist draw.
Since 1928, the Château de Biron has been listed as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.
Text adapted from “Château de Biron” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Château de Biron ranks #1,648 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #131 of the 793 mapped in France. Founded 1076, it is older than 87% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 436 atlas entries founded in the 11th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 3,986 times in the last 60 days, more than 83% of the atlas. 5 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. It is one of the 45 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of the Dordogne. It is stop 11 of 29 on the Dordogne castle route, Bergerac to Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne. See how France compares in the castle statistics.
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