Castle of Beynac: A Medieval Fortress Overlooking the Dordogne
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- High
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- French, Kingdom of Navarre
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page15 sections
History
Castle of Beynac is a medieval fortress in Beynac-et-Cazenac, France, built by the barons of Beynac from the twelfth century to control and monitor the Dordogne valley. It stands in the Périgord Noir, on the right bank of the river, and became one of the region’s principal strongholds.
Origins and Early Lords
The name Beynac is first recorded in 1115, when Mainard de Beynac joined other lords of Périgord in donating land to Robert de Arbrissel, the founder of Fontevrault Abbey. Cadouin Abbey was also founded on these wooded lands that year. Its records preserve many later donations by the Beynac family, showing that they controlled a substantial territory. The fortress itself was built later, and its construction should be distinguished from this earlier record of the family and its lands.
Adhémar de Beynac took part in the Second Crusade and died without a direct heir late in the twelfth century. Richard I of England, known as Richard the Lionheart, then granted Beynac to his loyal military companion Mercadier, probably in 1189 or 1194. Richard was the Plantagenet king whose rule included extensive territories in France. After Mercadier was assassinated in Bordeaux in 1200, the barony returned to the Beynac family.
Destruction and Rebuilding
In 1214, during the Albigensian Crusade, Simon de Montfort attacked the fortress after accusing the lord of Beynac of Cathar heresy. The campaign was directed against the Cathars, members of a medieval Christian dualist movement condemned as heretical by the Catholic Church. Although the lord declared his loyalty to the king of France, Montfort destroyed the keep and the walls of the citadel.
The Beynac family recovered the site about a year later. The fortress was rebuilt, probably with the intervention of the French king, and the men Montfort had left there were killed. From 1241, the Beynac châtellenie, a territorial jurisdiction administered from a castle, was divided between the brothers Gaillard and Mainard de Beynac. It included the Castle of Commarque, and the two family branches were reunited in 1379.
The Hundred Years’ War and Religious Conflict
During the Hundred Years’ War, the prolonged conflict between the English and French crowns from the fourteenth to the fifteenth century, Beynac stood on the Dordogne frontier between French territory and English-controlled Guyenne. Its lords remained loyal to the French crown, while nearby Castelnaud, on the opposite bank, was held for the English. The valley saw repeated fighting because of this position, but Beynac itself was never captured.
In 1442, Pons de Beynac and five other barons acted under the orders of Charles VII of France to expel the English from Castelnaud. From the late fifteenth century into the first half of the sixteenth, the four leading baronies of Périgord, Biron, Bourdeille, Mareuil, and Beynac, competed for the title of first baron of Périgord.
The lords of Beynac converted to Protestantism during the sixteenth-century Wars of Religion and supported the Huguenots, French Protestants chiefly associated with the Reformed tradition. In 1585, under the orders of Henry IV, then king of Navarre, the castle’s defenses were substantially altered. The fortress also served at times as a refuge and a prison.
Later Ownership and Preservation
The Beynac line ended in 1753 with the death of its last male heir. Through his daughter’s marriage, the property passed to the Beaumont family. The Beaumonts later abandoned the fortress, until a marquis of Beaumont returned to live there in the late nineteenth century and began a major restoration campaign. The cost of the work led to his bankruptcy, and his descendants could not maintain the castle.
Lucien Grosso bought the castle at auction in 1962 and restored the property, later receiving assistance from Denise Grosso. The childless couple decided in 1999 to bequeath it to Senator Albéric de Montgolfier, a heritage-restoration enthusiast and son of a museum conservator, identified as its current owner. The castle, including its fortified walls and terraces, was classified as a French historic monument in 1944. It is regarded as one of the best-preserved and most renowned castles in the region.
Remains
Castle of Beynac occupies the summit of a high limestone cliff about 150 metres above the Dordogne, overlooking the town below. Its irregular quadrilateral plan extends southward into a projecting spur bastion. The river-facing side is protected by the cliff, while the plateau side has two ditches, two outer defensive works protecting the entrances, and a double line of crenellated fortified walls. One ditch deepens a natural outer defense, giving the approach an additional defensive barrier.
Keep and Defensive Structures
Romanesque Keep
The oldest surviving component is a large square Romanesque keep, a heavy medieval structure with small openings and thick masonry. Dating from the thirteenth century, it has crenellations, a projecting bretèche, or defensive structure for observing and attacking assailants below, and a small sentry turret. A narrow spiral staircase tower is attached to the keep and rises to a crenellated upper terrace.
Residential Buildings
Early Residential Building
A residential building from roughly the same period adjoins one side of the keep. It was altered and enlarged during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, preserving the way the fortress developed from a primarily defensive stronghold into a more extensive noble residence.
Fourteenth-Century Wing
Another residential wing stands on the opposite side of the keep and is partly fourteenth-century in date. An adjoining courtyard and a square-plan staircase provide access to apartments from the seventeenth century. These rooms retain seventeenth-century woodwork and a painted ceiling.
Interior Rooms and Decoration
Assembly Hall of the Estates of Périgord
The room known as the Assembly Hall of the Estates of Périgord was used for meetings of the nobility of the four baronies of Beynac and Biron to the south, and Bourdeille and Mareuil to the north. Its Renaissance fireplace is decorated with carved bucrania, ornamental representations of ox skulls. A doorway with an accolade-shaped lintel carries three rosettes.
Oratory
The assembly hall opens onto a small oratory whose walls are covered with fifteenth-century frescoes. The paintings include a Pietà, showing the Virgin Mary mourning the dead Christ, Saint Christopher, traditionally associated with carrying Christ across a river, and a Last Supper in which Saint Martial appears as the household steward. Saint Martial is traditionally regarded as the first bishop of Limoges.
Tapestries and Family Standard
The castle also contains tapestries showing hunting scenes and episodes from the life of the period’s nobility. A reproduction of the Beaumont-Beynac family standard is displayed in the residence. The Beaumont-Beynac family owned the castle from the eighteenth century until 1961. Together, the defensive walls, keep, residential wings, decorated rooms, and terraces preserve a substantially medieval appearance.
