Chateaux of Gironde

Château du Hamel

Château du Hamel is a château in the commune of Castets-en-Dorthe. The present building was constructed in the mid-16th century on the remains of a 14th-century castle. All that remains of this earlier structure is the base of the keep on the eastern side, seen in the interior as a heptagonal vaulted room. The château is privately owned.
Founded: 16th century | Location: Castets-en-Dorthe, France

Château La Louvière

Château La Louvière is a Bordeaux wine producer from the Pessac-Léognan appellation of Bordeaux. The first small vineyard on the estate was planted in 1476, in a location named La Lobeyra, on land owned by the Guilloche family since 1398. During the period from 1510 to 1550 many land plots were acquired by Pierre de Guilloche and his son Jean de Guilloche. Lady Roquetaillade, the heiress to the Guilloche family, sold L ...
Founded: 18th century | Location: Léognan, France

Château Figeac

Château Figeac originates from an ancient estate that traces its roots back to the 2nd century, when a Gallo-Roman villa was built on the estate and named after a Figeacus. In the late 18th century, the property was close to 200 hectares in size, but was sold and subdivided several times in the 19th century until 1892, when Henri de Chevremont bought it. The castle has suffered during the centuries of wars and fires, th ...
Founded: 16th century | Location: Saint-Émilion, France

Château La Tour Carnet

Château La Tour Carnet estate has origins in the early Middle Ages, though the details are largely unknown, but takes its name from Jean Caranet or Carnet, an heir of Jean de Foix who is believed responsible for having built the château tower. The wine produced here was classified as one of ten Quatrièmes Crus (Fourth Growths) in the historic Bordeaux Wine Official Classification of 1855.
Founded: 12th century | Location: Saint-Laurent-Médoc, France

Château de Blanquefort

Château de Blanquefort is a ruined castle standing on a spur overlooking the Briolance valley. In the ninth century, a first fortification was built. The white stone gave the fort the name 'White Fort', in Latin Blanca Fortis, which evolved into the modern name Blanquefort. During the Plantagenet holding of Aquitaine, the fortifications were expanded into a royal fortress at the end of the thirteenth century b ...
Founded: 13th century | Location: Blanquefort, France

Château de Sémignan

Château de Sémignan is located on a swampy flat area in near Saint-Laurent-Médoc. Reason for this place is unknown, it may have been used as a protected warehouse. The castle is mentione first time in 1322/1323 and it was altered during the 16th and 19th centuries. Today it lies in ruins.
Founded: 14th century | Location: Saint-Laurent-Médoc, France

Château de Curton

Château de Curton is a castle and a Bordeaux winery producing wines classified as Bordeaux AOC. The castle is situated on the edge of the town of Tizac-Curton, which takes its name from the first Seigneurs (lords) of Curton. The earliest member of the Curton family documented in official texts is Raimond de Curton appearing in the 11th century, appearing as a Lord from the beginning of the 12th century. From the end of ...
Founded: 11th century | Location: Daignac, France

Château de la Trave

Arnaud-Bernard de Preyssac built the Château de la Trave in the early 14th century. It was destroyed in 1456 by the order of Charles VII of France.
Founded: 14th century | Location: Préchac, France

Château de Benauge

Château de Benauge is a medieval fortress in the commune of Arbis. It has been a stately home of the viscounts and earls of Benauges and the viscounts of Bezaume since at least the 13th century. It is one of the most impressive medieval castles in Gironde.
Founded: 13th century | Location: Arbis, France

Château du Bouilh

Château du Bouilh was built in 1786 for Jean-Frédéric de la Tour du Pin-Gouvernet by architect Victor Louis. The neoclassical semicircular château was built to host King Louis XVI on his visits to the area. There are 30 bedrooms, numerous grand salons, a library, vaulted ceilings and vineyard, a neo-gothic chapel, water tower, and seven hectares of caves.
Founded: 1786 | Location: Saint-André-de-Cubzac, France

Château de Carles

Château de Carles was originally laid during the course of the Hundred Years’ War and the building took its current appearance in the early 15th century. It was owned by the De Carle family. In the 17th century, Château de Carles became a beacon for thinkers and literary figures, but was sold as property of the nation during the Revolution, following which many of its buildings were demolished and the estate was reduc ...
Founded: 15th century | Location: Saillans, France

Château d’Eck

Built in the late 11th century, Château d’Eck, is located in the commune of Cadaujac. It is one of the most beautiful medieval châteaux in the Bordeaux area. Flanked by four towers and an outer wall several metres tall, it also features admirable machicolations and loopholes. King William VIII of England established the reputation of its wines. His son, Edward, gave the château to the Church in 1287. The Bishops of B ...
Founded: 11th century | Location: Cadaujac, France

Château de la Mothe-Gajac

Château de la Mothe-Gajac was first mentioned in 1289, but the current square form castle with corner towers was rebuilt after the Hundred Years" War. 
Founded: 15th century | Location: Saint-Médard-en-Jalles, France

Château de Guilleragues

The Château de Guilleragues is a medieval, previously ruined but restored castle in the commune of Saint-Sulpice-de-Guilleragues. This early 14th-century castle, built at the side of a small valley, consists of a long rectangular building, composed of a fortified house flanked by two towers and two watchtowers at either extremity of an annexe of the same height, from 1564. The lower court and the common buildings i ...
Founded: 14th century | Location: Saint-Sulpice-de-Guilleragues, France

Château de Malle

Château de Malle estate has, over the centuries, known numerous trials and tribulations. Both good and bad fortune. The Château was not inhabited regularly for practically two generations. In the early fifties Pierre de Bournazel took over the property inherited from his uncle and godfather, Pierre de Lur-Saluces. He was a man possessed by a love of the land and of stone and he decided to re-instil life into the buildi ...
Founded: 17th century | Location: Preignac, France

Château Malromé

The Château Malromé is located in the commune Saint-André-du-Bois. The first recorded occurrence of the château and its vineyard dates from the 16th century by Étienne de Rostéguy de Lancre, a member of the Parliament of Bordeaux. Towards 1780, the château passed to Catherine de Forcade, the widow of the Baron de Malromé, who renamed it in memory of her spouse. In 1847, the château became the property of Adolp ...
Founded: 16th century | Location: Saint-André-du-Bois, France

Château de Pitray

The Château de Pitray (built in the 17th century) is in the village of Saint-Seurin-de-Prats. The name comes from Pic du Roy, or king’s peak, since the house was built on an ancient tumulus also known as Mothe de Prats, signifying that it was on land a little higher than the plain. It belonged to the Puch family before being acquired by Gabriel de Ségur, seigneur of Pitray. From there it passed on to Pierre de Sà ...
Founded: 1626 | Location: Saint-Seurin-de-Prats, France

Château des Tours

The Château des Tours was built in the 14th century. At that time it had three towers: one had a polygonal interior and was the dungeon, and the others were circular flanking an oblong building on the east and west corners of its south face; then, at the same corners on the north face, there are sentry boxes with Corbels. The oldest part is in the south of the present castle and is also a little higher. North of the ori ...
Founded: 14th century | Location: Montagne, 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.