Location: Dordogne département Map
Constructed: 12th century by barons of Beynac
Open: 10am – 6:30pm
Tel. 05 53 29 50 40
Château de Beynac is located in Dordogne département of France. Château de Beynac was constructed in the 12th century by the barons of Beynac. It was used intensively during Hundred Years' War then English and French fought each other on annual bases. The citadel once guarded the frontier between the two forces. It was especially important in keeping the English in check who occupied Château de Castelnaud-la-Chapelle. The castle was increased in the 16th and 17th centuries and in 1962 it was restored after years of negligence. Beynac Castle might seem familiar since it was used as a backdrop for several movies including Les Visiteurs (1993), La Fille de d'Artagnan (1994), Ever After (1998), Jeanne d'Arc (1999) and Chocolat (2000).
The fortified castle was built in the 12th century by the barons of
Beynac to lock the valley. The sheer drop being sufficient to discourage
any climbing on the valley side, the defenses piled up on the plateau
side: double crenellated enclosure, double moat, one of which deepened a
natural ravelin, double barbican.
On the death of Adhémar de
Beynac (1147–1189), a crusader who died without issue, Richard the
Lionheart, King of England, offered Beynac to Mercadier, his faithful
guide. He was assassinated in Bordeaux in 1200 and the barony returned
to the original family. From 1241, the châtellenie, of which the Château
de Commarque is a part, was divided between two brothers, Gaillard and
Mainard de Beynac. The two branches will not be united again until 1379.
At the time of the Hundred Years War, the fortress of Beynac was one
of the strongholds of France. The Dordogne then serves as a border
between France and England; not far from there, on the other side of the
river, the castle of Castelnaud, rival of Beynac, was in the hands of
the English.
The oldest part of the castle is a large square
Romanesque dungeon, vertiginous, with rare openings, fastened with a
gatehouse and a watchtower, accosted by a spiral staircase, as thin as a
buttress and terminated by a crenellated terrace. On one side, a house
from the same period is juxtaposed to it; it was retouched and enlarged
in the 16th and 17th centuries. On the other side is a partly 14th
century dwelling, to which are attached a courtyard and a square
staircase leading to 17th century apartments. The apartments have
retained wood paneling and a painted ceiling from the 17th century; the
meeting room of the Estates of Périgord is so named because the nobility
of the four baronies met there, those of Beynac and Biron for the south
and those of Bourdeilles and Mareuil for the north; it keeps a beautiful
Renaissance fireplace carved with bucranes; this room overlooks a small
oratory entirely decorated, in the 15th century, with frescoes among
which a Pietà, a Saint Christopher, a supper in which Saint Martial is
the butler. You can also see sumptuous tapestries representing hunting
scenes and other scenes from the life of the lords of the time, as well
as the reproduction of the standard of the Beaumont-Beynac family, owner
of the castle since the 18th century. century until 1961.
In
1962, the castle was bought at auction for 170,000 Francs at the time by
Lucien Grosso, who made his fortune in the middle of casinos and
nightclubs in Marseille and Abidjan. He undertook to restore it and
bring it back to life, then helped by Denise Grosso, whom he married ten
years later. Lucien Grosso died on July 16, 2008, aged 98, and Denise
continued his work until his own death on February 17, 2016. The couple,
who had no children, had decided in 1999 to bequeath the castle to the
Senator Albéric de Montgolfier, thinking that this son of a museum
curator, himself passionate about heritage restoration, would be able to
continue their work.
Due to its location on the steep slope above the river, the castle is
only protected on the north side by a double wall. This is also where
the access to the complex, originally built in the 13th century and
later modified and extended, is located. A mighty main keep from the
13th century and a smaller side keep from the 14th century together with
the residential building from the 15th century form a distinctive
complex of tower buildings.
The showpiece inside is the medieval
Grande Salle des Etats with its impressive pointed arch vault and a
Renaissance fireplace decorated with stone reliefs. The fireplace,
together with the pointed arched windows extending downwards, are part
of a redesign of the room that was carried out in the 17th century. On
the walls of the adjoining oratory, 14th-century Gothic frescoes with
naively painted biblical scenes have been uncovered: a Last Supper scene
with Saint Martial of Limoges serving as cupbearer, a Crucifixion scene
and representations of several members of the von Beynac family.
A grand 17th-century staircase leads to a room furnished with furniture
from the Louis-Treize period. A narrow staircase leads to the
battlements and the southern bastion. From there, the visitor enjoys an
impressive view over the Dordogne valley. The Romanesque castle chapel
stands on the edge of the rock.
The castle was uninhabited from
1798 until it was acquired by the current owner in 1961. A long-term
restoration program, some of which has already been completed, aims to
restore the building to its original condition. In 1999, the castle
served as a backdrop for the film adaptation of the story of Joan of Arc
by French film director Luc Besson.
Maynard (1115-1124)
Adhemar (crusader in 1147, died between 1189
and 1194)
Mercadier. He received the castle from Richard the
Lionheart, King of England (1194-1200)
Pons I (1200-1209)
Gaillard
(1238-1272)
Pons II (1251-1300)
Adhemar II (tested in 1341 and
1348)
Pons III (died before his father)
Boson, son of Pons (he
married in 1341 and died before November 1354)
Pons IV (1362-1366)
Philippe (she married her cousin Pons de Beynac, Lord of Commarque, in
1379 and tested in 1403)
Pons V, seneschal of Périgord (tested in
1461 and 1464)
Jean-Bertrand (tested in 1486)
Geoffrey I († 1530)
Francis († 1537)
Geoffrey II (-1546)
Geoffrey III
Guy I, first
marquis of Beynac in 1620
Isaac (1619-1687)
Guy II
Pierre (died
in Bordeaux on October 9, 1753)
Claude (died November 4, 1753)
The Beynac family died out in 1753 with Pierre, the last Marquis of
Beynac, who married Anne-Marie Boucher in 1727, with whom he had two
daughters: Julie who married the Marquis de Castelnau and Claude-Marie
who married Christophe Marie de Beaumont in 1761. du Repaire
(1731-1802), field marshal. The Beaumont du Repaire family added Beynac
to their name and have since had the courtesy title of Marquis de
Beaumont-Beynac.