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Legendary castleDordogne

Château de Lanquais

Lanquais

Dimensions
Two châteaux set side by side, legible from the courtyard. To the right, a medieval castle with a round tower with machicolations and an octagonal tower. To the left, a large Renaissance main range with horizontal string courses separating the storeys, cornices and pediments, flanked by a round tower at the north-east corner and a stair turret to the south. Chimneypieces, ceilings and original panelling largely preserved. The country nicknames it "the unfinished Louvre of the Périgord".
Period
Medieval part of the 14th and 15th centuries as far as the stair tower; Renaissance wing begun under Charles IX from 1561 and completed in 1604.
What stands there
Listed as a monument historique (classified) on 8 July 1942, with a supplementary inscription on 14 September 2010, including the elm avenue (record PA00082605). Property of the Foucher de Brandois family since 1949.

The château de Lanquais shows side by side, in a single courtyard, two states of French architecture. To the right survives the medieval castle of the 14th and 15th centuries, with its round tower with machicolations and its octagonal tower; to the left rises a Renaissance wing commissioned by Galiot de La Tour and directed by the architect Pierre Souffron from 1561, completed only in 1604, whose ordering recalls the Lescot wing of the Louvre — hence its nickname of the "unfinished Louvre of the Périgord". The site was occupied long before: the bishops of Périgueux resided there from the 10th to the 12th century. In 1575 Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne besieged it and had two hundred cannonballs fired at it. It has been listed as a monument historique (classified) since 8 July 1942.

Further reading

Getting there : Private property open to visitors; times to be checked with the château or the tourist office.

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 Lanquais
Rslr22 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

In the same department

All places — Dordogne (80).