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Legendary castleDordogne

Château des Bernardières

Champeaux-et-la-Chapelle-Pommier

Dimensions
A round tower of the 13th century, its crown removed, linked by an enclosure wall to a keep of the 14th century, eight metres high, of a slightly lozenge-shaped plan and built directly on the rock, which keeps its superimposed fireplaces. At the rear, a central Renaissance main range with Louis XIII balustraded terraces, formal French gardens, a canal and a stepped bridge of two arches crossing the Nizonne. Beneath the courtyard runs an underground passage linking the buildings; in the middle of the courtyard, a well thirty-three metres deep.
Period
Round tower of the 13th century, keep of the 14th, central main range and terraces of the 17th century (Mérimée record: 12th and 17th centuries).
What stands there
Two listings as a monument historique (inscribed): on 24 June 1948 for the terraces, the well, the canal and the water system; on 6 October 2016 for the central main range, the enclosure walls, the Henri II gateway, the tower of the 13th century and the keep of the 14th (PA00082467). Private property. The estate produced munitions for the royal navy.

The château des Bernardières overlooks the Nizonne from a limestone cliff, on the boundary of the Dordogne and the Charente. The first known lord is, as early as 1253, the knight Seguin d'Authon, vassal of the sire of Mareuil; from 1300 to 1332, Pierre de Mareuil was its owner. In September 1377 the duke of Anjou and the constable Bertrand Du Guesclin arrived before the château, then held by the English: the latter set fire to it before fleeing, leaving their French prisoners to perish in the blaze. In the 17th century Armand d'Aydie de Ribérac raised at the rear a Renaissance main range with terraces and had the formal French gardens, the canal and the stepped bridge laid out. The château, which has remained private, was opened to visitors from 1950 by Blanche Vieillemard, and looked after for more than fifty years by Jean-Marie Bouzy and Marie-Anne Perrard.

Further reading

Getting there : Private property open to visitors since 1950; guided tour of about sixty minutes, in French and English, shop, animals admitted on a lead. Telephone before coming (05 53 60 94 61).

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 des Bernardières
Père Igor · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

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In the same department

All places — Dordogne (80).