Château de Brametourte, Lautrec, France

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 turbulent past. The castle was immersed in the religious fervour of Cathars, Knights of the Templar & the Wars of Religion. Sieged during the 1580s, it fell into disrepair and was left forgotten and frozen in time.

Nearly half a millennium later, the Château has been traditionally and ecologically restored; pioneering one of France’s first, self-sustainable medieval castles.

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Château de Brametourte

User Reviews

sue tootyflooty (2 years ago)
Just had the most wonderful weekend at our dear friends wedding, the Chateau is so beautifully and lovingly restored to an exceptional standard, one of the most amazing places we have visited, with very welcoming hosts Alison and Paul, really hope we can revisit in the future.

Neil Mach (2 years ago)
Thoroughly magical

Lisa Hammond (2 years ago)
Stunning medieval chateau in stunning environment.

Chi Morgan (3 years ago)
Brametourte is an astonishing place. The attention to authenticity and detail are remarkable and yet there is every aspect of 21st century comfort. The views are great - all the way across to the Pyrenees on a clear day. Hospitality by the hosts is first class.

Graham Wooldridge (3 years ago)
What an amazing place to stay, if you need to get away from it all and relax this is the place to do it. Paul and Alison are very welcoming and lovely people, make you feel at home.

Featured Historic Landmarks, Sites & Buildings

Photo from Flickr, copyright Me in ME

Historic Site of the week

Seville Cathedral

Seville's cathedral, Santa Maria de la Sede, is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, and is recognised as UNESCO World Heritage. After its completion in the early 16th century, Seville Cathedral supplanted Hagia Sophia as the largest cathedral in the world, a title the Byzantine church had held for nearly a thousand years.

History

The basilica occupies the site of the great Aljama mosque, built in the late 12th century by the Almohads, the ruling Moorish dynasty, of which the only remaining parts are the Patio de Naranjas, the Puerta del Perdon (on Calle Alemanes, on the north side), and the Giralda (formerly the minaret, now the belltower).

Shortly after Seville's conquest by Ferdinand III, the mosque was converted into the city's cathedral. Its orientation was changed and its spaces partitioned and adorned to suit Christian worship practices. The internal space was gradually divided into chapels by constructing walls in the bays along the northern and southern walls. Almost the entire eastern half of the cathedral was occupied by the royal chapel that would hold the bodies of Ferdinand, his wife and Alfonso the Wise.

In 1401, city leaders decided to build a new cathedral to replace the grand mosque that served as the cathedral until then. Construction continued until 1506. The clergy of the parish offered half their stipends to pay for architects, artists, stained glass artisans, masons, carvers, craftsman and labourers and other expenses. Five years after construction ended, in 1511, the crossing lantern, or cimborrio, collapsed and work on the cathedral recommenced. The crossing again collapsed in 1888 due an earthquake, and work on the dome continued until at least 1903.

Architecture

The interior has the longest nave of any cathedral in Spain. The central nave rises to a height of 42 metres. In the main body of the cathedral, the most noticeable features are the great boxlike choir loft, which fills the central portion of the nave, and the vast Gothic retablo of carved scenes from the life of Christ. This altarpiece was the lifetime work of a single craftsman, Pierre Dancart.

The Capilla Mayor (Great Chapel), dominated by a vast Gothic retablo (altarpiece) comprised of 45 carved scenes from the life of Christ, as well as Santa Maria de la Sede, the cathedral's patron saint. The lifetime's work of a single craftsman, Pierre Dancart, this is the ultimate masterpiece of the cathedral - the largest and richest altarpiece in the world and one of the finest examples of Gothic woodcarving anywhere.

The Giralda is the bell tower of the Cathedral of Seville. Its height is 105 m. The Giralda is the former minaret of the mosque that stood on the site under Muslim rule, and was built to resemble the minaret of the Koutoubia Mosque in Marrakech, Morocco. It was converted into a bell tower for the cathedral after the Reconquista, although the topmost section dates from the Renaissance.

The tomb of Christopher Columbus is one of the main attractions of the cathedral for visitors, housing the remains of the great explorer who died in poverty in Valladolid. The tomb itself is more recent, from the 1892, with four bearers presenting the kingdoms of Castile, Leon, Aragon and Navarra.

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