Hauts LieuxChapels, sanctuaries & legends

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Legendary castleDordogne

Château de Fénelon

Sainte-Mondane

Dimensions
A Gascon fortress dominating the valley of the Dordogne, roofed with lauzes. Three concentric enclosures, two 16th-century gatehouses with machicolations, brattices and gun-loops, a drawbridge to the north-east. Round towers, a 13th-century chapel housed in a tower of the courtyard, a Merovingian well 98 metres deep. Furnished and decorated rooms, a permanent exhibition devoted to Fénelon.
Period
A castle existing around the year 1000; oldest visible parts of the 12th century; towers of the 15th, front of the 16th, earthworks and adaptation to comfort in the 17th.
What stands there
Inscribed on 5 November 1927, classified on 13 April 1962 — with three dependencies: the Condamine farm, the nurse's house, the Fraysange métairie —, newly inscribed on 24 March 2026; Mérimée record PA00082878. Private property open to visitors.

Fénelon dominates the valley of the Dordogne at Sainte-Mondane, east of Sarlat. A castle already existed there around the year 1000; the oldest visible parts go back to the 12th century. A Cathar stronghold in the 12th and 13th centuries, the castle passed to the English by the treaty of Brétigny in 1360 and was not retaken until 1375. François de Salignac de La Mothe-Fénelon, the future archbishop of Cambrai, tutor to the duke of Burgundy and author of Telemachus, was born there in 1651. At the Revolution the castle was turned into a silkworm farm. It was inscribed in 1927 and then classified on 13 April 1962.

Further reading

Getting there : Private property open to visitors, from 1 April to 31 October. Unguided visits. Adult rate from €11.80, reductions for students, teenagers and children. Telephone 05 53 29 81 45.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

See it on the map OpenStreetMap Directions

Ambient sound

Château de Fénelon
Père Igor · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

In the same department

All places — Dordogne (80).