PERIGORD CASTLES

Overlooking the Dordogne valley, FEnelon is located on a hill, one kilometre east of the village of Sainte-Mondane, in a site that has been listed since 1951 on more than 14 hectares. It is a private property, open to visitors. Listed as a historical monument in 1927, it was classified in 1962. It is 6km from the Domaine. It was used as a setting, with the castle of Beynac, for the film "the last duel" by Ridley Scott, which was released in 2021!

Milandes, protected as a historic monument, was built in 1489 and was the residence of the Lords of Caumont at the time. The French Revolution led to the abandonment of the castle, which was sold in the 19th century. The castle was the residence of the singer and magazine leader Joséphine Baker, who rented it from 1937 and bought it 10 years later with her husband Jo Bouillon. She developed an avant-garde tourist complex there, called "Village du Monde", and lived there with her 12 adopted children.

This castle is one of the best preserved and one of the most renowned in the region. It was classified as a historical monument on 11 February 1944. This austere-looking medieval construction, perched on top of a limestone plateau, dominates the village on the right bank of the Dordogne. The severe keep, with its battlements, dates from the 13th century. Protected on the side of the plateau by a double enclosure, the castle overlooks the Dordogne by 150 m. The fortified castle was built in the 12th century by the Barons of Beynac to lock up the valley. 

Castelnaud castle is a medieval fortress located in the commune of Castelnaud-la-Chapelle. In 1980, it was classified as a historical monument. Situated at the confluence of the Dordogne valley and the Céou valley which it overlooks, Castelnaud castle faces the fortress of Beynac, its eternal medieval rival, the gardens of Marqueyssac and the village of  Roque-Gageac. It is an exceptional example of private feudal fortification.

The castle is situated on a rocky spur overlooking the commune and the village of Hautefort. Created over a period from the end of the 16th to the end of the 17th century on the foundations of an old fortified castle, its architecture is clearly reminiscent of the Loire castles. It is one of the few classical buildings in the Dordogne. French-style gardens extend in terraces all around the château, laid out in beds of flowering boxwood embroidery. They are classified as historical monuments. An English-style park extends over 30 hectares, on the hill to the west of the castle.

Puymartin Castle is located in the commune of Marquay, 8 km from Sarlat and 11 km from Les Eyzies. Legend has it that a 16th century chatelaine, Thérèse de Saint-Clar, was surprised with her lover by her husband's unexpected return from war. As punishment for her mistake, he condemned her to remain a prisoner for the last 16 years of her life in a small room in the north tower, where she died and where the deceived husband demanded that his wife's body be buried. It has since been claimed that the ghost of Thérèse de Saint-Clar sometimes wanders in the evening around midnight, in the form of a white lady, up the staircase on the castle's walkway, before entering this room.