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Legendary castleDordogne

Château de l'Herm

Rouffignac-Saint-Cernin-de-Reilhac

Dimensions
A rectangular residential range flanked by three towers, a Renaissance entrance doorway, a monumental spiral staircase, and three superimposed fireplaces in the Flamboyant Gothic style, one to each floor. The moat, the access track and its bridge survive.
Period
Built between 1500 and 1520 by Jean II de Calvimont and his son Jean III, on a site occupied since the 12th century.
What stands there
Classified as a monument historique on 17 March 2022 (PA00082786), after a first inscription in 1927; the classification covers the whole castle, the remains of the chapel and of the oven, the former moat and the bridge. Privately owned since 2020, under restoration.

The château de l'Herm stands apart from Rouffignac, at the edge of the Barade forest. Jean II de Calvimont, a magistrate who had risen into the noblesse de robe, had it built around 1500; his son Jean III, ambassador of François I to Charles V in 1526, completed it. The Renaissance doorway, the spiral staircase and the three Flamboyant fireplaces stacked over three levels can still be seen. In 1605 Marguerite de Calvimont, lady of l'Herm, was strangled there on the orders of her husband François II d'Aubusson, after signing a deed stripping her of her property: the first of a series of murders that emptied the house within some fifty years. Abandoned in the 17th century and dismantled after 1805, the building has been under restoration since 2022.

Further reading

Getting there : Closed to the public during the works. Exceptional openings for the European Heritage Days and for the Châteaux en fête event, by reservation; parking in the hamlet and about 400 metres on foot. A regular reopening is announced for 2028.

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 l'Herm
Havang(nl) · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

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In the same department

All places — Dordogne (80).