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Legendary castleDordogne

Château de Fayrac

Castelnaud-la-Chapelle

Dimensions
Irregular plan on the bank of the Dordogne: gatehouse with two drawbridges over a ditch, crenellated ramparts, round towers of the 15th century, keep of the 16th, chapel with rib vaults, doorway defended by a brattice in an inner garden.
Period
Fortified house mentioned in the 13th century (vaulted cellars and round tower preserved), gatehouse with drawbridge of the 15th century, residential range around 1529, restorations of the 19th century.
What stands there
Listed as a monument historique (inscribed) on 31 March 1928, Mérimée record PA00082447. Private property. In the 19th century it belonged to the composer Fernand Fouant de La Tombelle, founder of the Schola Cantorum, who restored it heavily.

Fayrac occupies the floor of the valley, between Castelnaud and the Milandes. The name appears in the 13th century, that of a fortified house belonging to the Church, which passed in the 14th century to the Caumont family, lords of Castelnaud. During the Hundred Years' War the towers of Fayrac served as a forward lookout for Castelnaud, then English, facing Beynac, French. Léonard de Prouhet received the land in 1459 as a reward from the count of Périgord; the Blancher family succeeded him, among them Pierre, a counsellor at the parlement of Bordeaux, killed in 1580. Seized as national property in 1789, the château was heavily restored in the 19th century.

Further reading

Getting there : Private property, not open to the public. Visible from the valley road and from the terraces of Beynac and Castelnaud; the château is part of the tourist ensemble known as the "valley of the six châteaux".

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 Fayrac
Johan Allard · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

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In the same department

All places — Dordogne (80).