Château des Bories

The Château des Bories is a château at Antonne-et-Trigonant in Dordogne, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France. The castle dates back to the late 15th and early 16th centuries. It has fortified towers, a monumental staircase and a dry moat. It is the home of the Lary de Latour family.

A lodge stood here in the 15th century. The present building was begun in 1497. It was completed in 1604 by the Protestant Henri de Saint-Astier who saw it taken by the Catholics. In 1652, supporters of The Fronde occupied the castle. At the time of the French Revolution, the castle was to have been demolished, but only the walls courtyard were taken down and the ditches filled in.

The château consists of a long rectangular corps de logis with two large round towers and a square tower containing a staircase. The staircase is seen as the prototype of the French monumental staircases that developed in the 17th century. A bartizan or échauguette decorates the south eastern corner, and a turret containing a spiral staircase leads to the roofs, continuing the square staircase. The building maintains its defensive look, with machicolated towers, ditches, a drawbridge and a fortified court. The three storey building stands above vaulted cellars.

Text adapted from “Château des Bories” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Château des Bories ranks #5,871 of 8,764 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #505 of the 675 mapped in France. Founded 1497, it is older than 47% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 490 atlas entries founded in the 15th century. 8 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. It is one of the 30 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of the Dordogne. See how France compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗