Château de Cazeneuve: A Fortified Château in France
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Early Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- English, French
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Palace
On this page11 sections
History
Château de Cazeneuve is a fortified château in France, located at Préchac in the Gironde department. Its first fortress dates from the eleventh century and was built by medieval lords associated with the Albret family along the Ciron gorge and the Honburens stream. The site later became one of the residences of the kings of Navarre and was substantially remodelled as a more comfortable château during the seventeenth century.
The Albret Fortress
The stronghold is first documented in 1250, when Amanieu VI d’Albret rendered homage to Gaston VII of Béarn. The Albret family, a powerful noble house in southwestern France whose leading members held the crown of Navarre from 1484 to 1572, expanded and strengthened the medieval fortress during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. A major rebuilding campaign is associated with Amanieu VII d’Albret, while further enlargement and fortification followed under Amanieu VIII.
Edward I of England and Eleanor of Castile stayed at Cazeneuve in 1287. The château subsequently entered the royal history of Navarre. In 1572, Henri III of Navarre inherited it from his mother. He later became Henri IV of France in 1589, as the first French king of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty.
A Royal Residence and Seventeenth-Century Transformation
Henri III sold Cazeneuve to Monsieur de Rancé in 1583 under an agreement allowing its repurchase, during a period of serious financial difficulty. Marguerite of France was present at the château that year. Cazeneuve was later assigned to Henri IV as a residence while he awaited the annulment of his marriage to Marguerite. In 1599, the property was sold to Raymond de Viçose, a member of the Protestant party.
Louis XIII stayed at Cazeneuve in October 1620 while travelling to Pau. On 20 October, he issued the edict incorporating Béarn and Navarre into the royal domain. Louis XIV, the Bourbon king who reigned from 1643 to 1715, stayed at the château in June 1660 while travelling to Saint-Jean-de-Luz for his marriage to the Spanish infanta Marie-Thérèse.
During the seventeenth century, the medieval fortress was extensively remodelled for residential and ceremonial use. The present buildings are associated with this reconstruction and have undergone periodic restoration. The château and its park were classified as French historic monuments on 24 September 1965, with protection covering the château, the park, and part of the grounds between the Ciron and one of its tributaries. The estate remains in the possession of the Sabran-Pontevès family, who descend through the female line from the House of Albret.
Remains
Château de Cazeneuve occupies a rocky bank above the Ciron gorge. Its irregular polygonal plan is enclosed by a moat and defended by two towers. Within the walls, a two-level Court of Honour connects the surviving medieval fortifications with the seventeenth-century residential buildings. The estate extends across approximately 50 hectares, including the château, woodland, gardens, and features associated with the historic landscape.
Fortifications and Subterranean Features
Medieval Motte and Courts
The earliest fortress stood on a steep medieval motte approximately 10 to 12 metres high. The mound was based on exposed rock and separated from the plateau by a deep cut, which was later converted into a lower court as the medieval complex expanded. The fortress consisted of the château proper, an inner court, and a lower bailey, an enclosed court within the defensive perimeter. Walls and a broad moat protected the lower court, while a barbican, a fortified entrance defence, guarded the southern approach.
Moats and Caves
The advanced fortifications and moats are among the oldest surviving parts of the complex. Medieval cellars and caves cut into the rock lie beneath the château, and these underground spaces were inhabited in antiquity. A well in the centre of the Court of Honour connects by a staircase descending 14 metres to a nymphaeum, an ancient Gallo-Roman sanctuary associated with water and nymphs.
Seventeenth-Century Château
Residential Buildings
The seventeenth-century château is arranged around a corps de logis, or main residential building, framed by two pavilions with pyramidal roofs. A wing returns at a right angle around the courtyard. On the main façade, a seventeenth-century terrace with a stone balustrade links the two pavilions. The entrance portal is framed by projecting stonework and crowned by a broken circular pediment with a central motif.
Interior Collections
The château contains period-furnished royal apartments and an exhibition of decorative arts. These interiors form part of the residence’s surviving presentation as a historic house, alongside the older defensive structures and subterranean remains.
Park and Historic Landscape
The present park combines an English-style garden with woodland and follows the Ciron gorge towards the château’s cave. Its features include remains of the old town’s fortifications, the medieval motte at the confluence of two rivers, paths leading to a spring, and a palombière, a hunting station used for wood-pigeon hunting in southwestern France. A lagoon with a bird island, a waterfall, an old mill, a washhouse, and a large bamboo grove also form part of the grounds.
A pond and centuries-old trees structure the landscape, which contains sequoias, cedars of Lebanon, maples, hornbeams, walnut trees, and cherry trees. Narcissi and cyclamens grow in the understorey. Deer, wild rabbits, pheasants, and other wild animals are also found within the park.
