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Legendary castleDordogne

Château de Grignols

Grignols

Dimensions
Triangular plan on a height some fifty metres above the valley of the Vern. Four successive terraces linked by drawbridges; enclosure of the 13th century taking in part of the village; a bailey of about 150 metres by 60, with ramparts two metres thick and eight to ten metres high, separated from the château by ditches seven metres wide. Arrow slits of the 13th century and Renaissance windows stand side by side; two rectangular pavilions with vast halls date from 1495-1505.
Period
Oldest parts of the 13th century; alterations by Jean de Talleyrand between 1495 and 1505; ruined in 1652.
What stands there
Listed as a monument historique (inscribed) on 31 March 1928 (PA00082571). Private property. A sculpture on the site representing a battle remains unexplained. The seigneury belonged to the counts of Périgord and then, before 1243, to the Talleyrand family, who kept the title until the 19th century.

The château de Grignols occupies a triangular spur some fifty metres above the valley of the Vern and commanded the road from Périgueux to Bordeaux. A first timber work is said to have stood there in the 5th-6th centuries, a castle around the 10th; the surviving parts go back to the 13th. Boson de Talleyrand was its lord before 1243 and the family was to keep the title until the 19th century. Jean de Talleyrand had two rectangular pavilions with vast halls built there between 1495 and 1505, without giving up curtain walls and loopholes. Shelled, pillaged and burnt by the troops of the prince de Condé in 1652, during the Fronde, it was in ruins by 1756. The remains have been listed as monuments historiques (inscribed) since 31 March 1928.

Further reading

Getting there : Private property, the interior not open to visitors. Discovery of the exterior is free and without charge, from the road and the footpath. Occasional openings take place during the Châteaux en fête event.

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 Grignols
Père Igor · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

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In the same department

All places — Dordogne (80).