Location: Dordogne département Map
Constructed: 12th century
Château de Biron or Biron Castle is situated in Dordogne département of France. Château de Biron or Biron Castle was constructed here in the 12th century. It was named after Gontaut Biron who acquired local lands through marriage. It holds a strategic location in the valley of the Lede river. Biron Castle was captured by the sect of Cathars in 1211. This secretive and legendary sect of heretics quickly earned response from the Roman Catholic Church. Simon IV de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester, led Albigensian Crusade against these heretics and retook the citadel the following year. Today only the keep is all that remains from the original building. In the 16th century the castle was reconstructed and added Renaissance living quarters, vaulted kitchens and a chapel. In 1928 Château de Biron was proclaimed as monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture. In 1994 it was the filming location of La Fille de d'Artagnan with Sophie Marceau and Philippe Noiret.
Location
The castle is located in the Lède valley, on the borders
of Périgord, of which it is the seat of one of the four baronies, on an
enormous rocky hill overlooking the town of Biron, in the French
department of Dordogne.
Historical
The castle of Biron,
referring to archaeological data, would date from around the year one
thousand, between the end of the tenth and the middle of the eleventh
century. The lords of Biron are mentioned in texts at the end of the
11th century, vassals of the Count of Toulouse.
In the second
half of the twelfth century, under Henri Plantagenêt, Duke of Aquitaine
and King of England, the Birons erected an imposing tower, but from the
end of this century, they abandoned the site to their descendants, the
Gontaud-Birons, and left to settle in Montferrand-du-Périgord, in a
residence which they held and which they then transformed into a castle.
Under the patronage of the Plantagenêts and the Gontauds, the castle
was radically altered, the lower courtyard was surrounded by a curtain
wall flanked by towers and the town was fortified.
In 1211, it
was taken by the Albigenses who gave it to Martin Algai, a Spanish
captain and mercenary in the service of the King of England, who then
went into the service of Simon IV de Montfort, Count of Leicester, the
main leader of the crusade against the Albigensians. Following the
betrayal of Martin Algai who went into the service of the Count of
Toulouse, Simon de Montfort seized the castle, had Martin Algai hanged
and entrusted the castle to Arnaud de Montagu.
In 1222, the
castle was sold by King Henri III to Henri de Gontaut.
The castle
will remain the property of the Gontaut-Biron family until the eve of
the Second World War in the person of Guillaume de Gontaut (1859-1939),
since 1883 Marquis of Saint-Blancard and Biron, known as the Marquis de
Biron ; it is reputed to have given its name to the district of high
antiquity of the famous "flea market" of Saint-Ouen in Paris.
Anne-Charles de Gontaut (° 1963) is the current bearer of the title.
Taken and ransacked by the English in the 14th and 15th centuries,
Pons de Gontaud de Biron († 1524), regained his fortune, transformed the
medieval fortress into a comfortable residence. It is he who erects the
double church which will become the dynastic sanctuary, in order to
accommodate his tomb and that of his brother Armand. In order to regain
his rank, he married Marguerite de Montferrand, his relative. His son,
Jean (1502-1557) will marry a Bonneval, from a large Limousin family.
Introduced to the court, he fell into disgrace with François I. His son
Armand (1524-1592) will be the unconditional support of the Valois and
Catholicism in a region largely won over to the Reformation. Killed in
the fights of the League, he will not be able to see the outcome of the
transformation of the castle which he had undertaken. His work will
remain unfinished following the disgrace of his son Charles (1562-1602)
executed under Henri IV. It was Charles Armand de Gontaud-Biron who in
the 18th century modernized the castle, which was later, due to its
remoteness, ransacked during the Terror.
In 1938 the castle will
be bought by the Copper-Royer family, who will keep it for forty years;
in 1950 and 1952 Jacqueline Copper-Royer represented various aspects of
the castle with drawings or prints (iconographic collection of the
Departmental Archives of the Dordogne).
On May 30, 1974, a
violent hailstorm caused major damage to the roofs of the buildings, and
in 1978 it was a very dilapidated castle complex that was sold to the
Dordogne department, which then undertook to restore it.
In 1980,
the association Friends of the Château de Biron and Béatrice Gonzalez de
Andia, related to the Gontaut-Birons, obtained from the Ministry of
Culture the necessary funds to carry out the most urgent repairs.
In 2012, renovation work on the framework of the Maréchaux wing
began, planned for a period of two years and a cost of 2.3 million
euros.
In the 21st century, the Château de Biron, open to public
visits, served as a setting for exhibitions and shows.