Castles in Occitanie

Château de Rudelle

The Château de Rudelle is a 16th and 17th century castle in the commune of Muret. The castle is noted for its ancient chimneys and for murals painted on the third floor. It was built by Guillaume de Rudelle, the son of Jean de Rudelle, a counsellor to the king. In 1783, Jean-Marie-Joseph Ingres, the father of the famous artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, stayed there and painted several ceilings. At the Fr ...
Founded: 16th century | Location: Muret, France

Château de Saint-Élix-Séglan

The castle was originally constructed in the 14th century, with developments in the 15th and 17th century. The Château de Saint-Elix is a modest fortified house situated on the summit of a hill dominating the valley of the Noue River. It consists of a mediaeval nucleus, a tower-house from the 14th-15th centuries and a two-storey house built in the 17th century.
Founded: 14th century | Location: Saint-Élix-Séglan, France

Château du Prince Noir

Château du Prince Noir was built around the year 1500, but dungeon dates from the 14th century. Today it is restored and in private use.
Founded: c. 1500 | Location: Arcizans-Avant, France

Château de Lasserre

The Château de Lasserre is a ruined castle in the commune of Béraut. With origins in the 14th century, the castle was adapted and altered in the 16th and 18th centuries. It is privately owned.
Founded: 14th century | Location: Béraut, France

Château de Loubersan

Château de Loubersan was built in the 11th century as a fortified mansion. It was expanded and altered during the late Middle Ages. The moated castle is today privately owned.  
Founded: 11th century | Location: Loubersan, France

Château du Garrané

The Château du Garranée was originally constructed in the 11th century. It was modified in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. A tower is all that remains of another castle, believed to be 13th century, belonging to the abbots of Faget. The ground floor had no openings other than a small bay in the southern wall. It represented the typical medieval military architecture of the region. It was already in ruins at the Fren ...
Founded: 13th century | Location: Seissan, France

Château de Bouvées

Château de Bouvées was built between 1530 and 1560 by Monseigneur de Saint-Julien, Bishop of Aire-sur-Adour, on the ruins of an earlier structure. At the time of the French Revolution, it was sold as a national asset. The building consisted of three wings enclosing an inner courtyard, flanked in the corners by round towers. Only the east and south parts remain, the agricultural buildings attached to the ancient walls ...
Founded: 1530 | Location: Labrihe, France

Château de Boissezon

Château de Boissezon was first mentioned in 966 or 996 AD. According old documents, it had originally five round towers an spacious rooms and annexed buildings. Today only one tower remains.  
Founded: 10th century AD | Location: Murat-sur-Vèbre, France

Château de Brametourte

Château de Brametourte, founded in the 11th century, surveys a stunning panorama across 20 hectares of parkland, woods & sun-flowered fields towards the Pyrenean peaks. Situated in the south of France, close to the award winning bastide village of Lautrec, central to three UNESCO World Heritage sites, Toulouse, Albi and Carcassonne, the tranquil beauty of this ancient home of Barons & Viscounts, belies its tur ...
Founded: 11th century | Location: Lautrec, France

Château de Campan

Château de Campan may have been built originally in the 11th century and its history is connected to Knights Templar according local legends. The current appearance dates mainly from the 16th and 17th centuries.
Founded: 11th century | Location: d'Anglès, France

Château de Canac

Château de Canac was built in 1180 and rebuilt in the 16th century. Today only ruins remain.
Founded: 1180 | Location: Murat-sur-Vèbre, France

Château de Combefa

Château de Combefa was built in the 13th century to protect the route between Rodez and Toulouse. It was owned by the bishops of Albi. The chapel was built in 1474-1503. The castle was demolished in 1761.
Founded: 13th century | Location: Combefa, France

Château d'Hauterive

Château d"Hauterive was built in the 13-14th centuries, but medieval castle has been altered heavily later. It is surrounded by a moat.
Founded: 13th century | Location: Castres, France

Château de Mayragues

The Château de Mayragues (12th - 17th century) and its pigeon loft built on 4 columns, both listed as Historic Buildings, surrounded by its bio-dynamic vineyard, sit proudly in the midst of the magnificent rolling countryside of the Bastides Albigeoises. The Château de Mayragues is one of the few remaining examples of the regional fortified architecture with a half-timbered, overhanging gallery surrounding the top of th ...
Founded: 12th century | Location: Castelnau-de-Montmiral, France

Château de Malvignol

Château de Malvignol was first time mentioned in 1258. It was rebuilt in residential style after the French Wars of Religion.
Founded: 13th century | Location: Lautrec, France

Château de Montespieu

Château de Montespieu is a neo-medieval fortress located in Navès. Built on foundations dating back to the twelfth century, it was completely rebuilt in the sixteenth century, rebuilt in the seventeenth and restored in 1900. The castle Montespieu is a vast rectangle which has the features of a neo-medieval fortress. It is flanked by seven towers, three in the main body and four pavilions constructed of square.
Founded: 16th century | Location: Naves, France

Château de Saint-Hippolyte

Château de Saint-Hippolyte was first time documented in 1313. The current appearance dates from the 17th and 19th centuries. The square form castle has chapel.
Founded: 14th century | Location: Monestiés, France

Château de Padiès

The Château de Padiès is a unique Renaissance château complex. The history of Padiès firmly place it within its historic and geographic context. It has been established that the château existed at least before 1209. The Seigneurs were Cathar sympathisers and records from the Inquisition through to the 13th century are testimony to this. During the Wars of Religion, the château was attacked and pillaged by the Prote ...
Founded: 16th century | Location: Lempaut, France

Château de Saint-Michel-de-Vax

Château de Saint-Michel-de-Vax (not open), built between 1200 and 1250, was responsible for building the village. The Lord of St Michel Lacombe, Empire General, was born in 1753 and died there in 1812 after a distinguished career immortalized in the 'Georgics' by Claude Simon, one of his descendants, Nobel Prize for Literature in 1985.
Founded: 13th century | Location: Saint-Michel-de-Vax, France

Château de Trévien

Château de Trévien was built in the 15th-16th centuries. The square form castle has towers in every corners.
Founded: 15th century | Location: Trévien, France

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Historic Site of the week

Monte d'Accoddi

Monte d"Accoddi is a Neolithic archaeological site in northern Sardinia, located in the territory of Sassari. The site consists of a massive raised stone platform thought to have been an altar. It was constructed by the Ozieri culture or earlier, with the oldest parts dated to around 4,000–3,650 BC.

The site was discovered in 1954 in a field owned by the Segni family. No chambers or entrances to the mound have been found, leading to the presumption it was an altar, a temple or a step pyramid. It may have also served an observational function, as its square plan is coordinated with the cardinal points of the compass.

The initial Ozieri structure was abandoned or destroyed around 3000 BC, with traces of fire found in the archeological evidence. Around 2800 BC the remains of the original structure were completely covered with a layered mixture of earth and stone, and large blocks of limestone were then applied to establish a second platform, truncated by a step pyramid (36 m × 29 m, about 10 m in height), accessible by means of a second ramp, 42 m long, built over the older one. This second temple resembles contemporary Mesopotamian ziggurats, and is attributed to the Abealzu-Filigosa culture.

Archeological excavations from the chalcolithic Abealzu-Filigosa layers indicate the Monte d"Accoddi was used for animal sacrifice, with the remains of sheep, cattle, and swine recovered in near equal proportions. It is among the earliest known sacrificial sites in Western Europe.

The site appears to have been abandoned again around 1800 BC, at the onset of the Nuragic age.

The monument was partially reconstructed during the 1980s. It is open to the public and accessible by the old route of SS131 highway, near the hamlet of Ottava. It is 14,9 km from Sassari and 45 km from Alghero. There is no public transportation to the site. The opening times vary throughout the year.