France · 13th century
The Château de Castelnaud is a medieval fortress in the commune of Castelnaud-la-Chapelle, overlooking the river Dordogne in Périgord, southern France. It was erected to face its rival, the Château de Beynac.
The oldest documents mentioning it date to the 13th century, when it figured in the Albigensian Crusade; its Cathar castellan (constable) was Bernard de Casnac. Simon de Montfort took the castle and installed a garrison; when it was retaken by Bernard, he hanged them all. During the Hundred Years' War, the castellans of Castelnaud owed their allegiance to the Plantagenets, the sieurs de Beynac across the river, to the king of France. In later times it was abandoned bit by bit, until by the time of the French Revolution it was a ruin.
The restored castle is a private property that is open to the public. It has a museum of medieval warfare, featuring reconstructions of siege engines, mangonneaux, and trebuchets. The castle is listed as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.
Text adapted from “Château de Castelnaud-la-Chapelle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Château de Castelnaud-la-Chapelle ranks #781 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #72 of the 793 mapped in France. Founded c. 1250, it is older than 67% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 1080 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 6,073 times in the last 60 days, more than 89% of the atlas. 13 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 20 of 29 on the Dordogne castle route, Bergerac to Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne. See how France compares in the castle statistics.
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