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Legendary castleDordogne

Château de Montaigne

Saint-Michel-de-Montaigne

Dimensions
A large round tower accompanied by a small round tower housing the spiral staircase and by a small square building: this is the library tower, the only remnant of Montaigne's house. It is arranged over three levels — chapel on the ground floor, bedchamber on the first, library on the second, where sentences painted on the oak beams survive, sixty-eight of them identified to date. The neighbouring main range is a 19th-century reconstruction.
Period
A 14th-century fortification; the library tower is the only old element preserved. The rest of the castle was rebuilt in 1884–1885 in neo-Renaissance style after the fire.
What stands there
The library tower was classified as a monument historique on 28 March 1952; the protection was extended to the whole estate by inscription on 29 October 2009 (record PA00082876). Private property. Acquired in 1477 by Ramon Eyquem, Montaigne's great-grandfather, then by Pierre Magne in 1860.

The château de Montaigne lies at the western end of the Dordogne, on the borders of the Bordelais. Ramon Eyquem, the philosopher's great-grandfather, bought the estate in 1477. Michel de Montaigne wrote the Essays there from 1571 to 1592 and received the future Henri IV there in 1584. The residence burned down in 1885 and was rebuilt in neo-Renaissance style. Only the library tower survived: a large round tower flanked by a stair turret, with the chapel where Montaigne had his children baptised on the ground floor, his bedchamber on the first floor and, on the second, the round room he described in these words — "The shape of it is round, and has no flat side but what is needed for my table and my chair" — whose beams still carry painted sentences, sixty-eight of them identified to date.

Further reading

Getting there : Open to visitors.

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 Montaigne
Louka79 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Nearby

In the same department

All places — Dordogne (80).