The Château de Castelnau-Bretenoux is a castle in the commune of Prudhomat, Lot département, France. One of the most impressive in the Quercy region, it has been listed as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture since 1862.
History
Construction began about 1100, under Hugues, baron of Castelnau, who built a wall around his manor. He was the ancestor of the powerful dynasty of Castelnau, who owned a rich and prosperous region and were vassals of the Counts of Toulouse.
The castle was enlarged several times between the 12th and the 15th century, when it was necessary to adapt the fortifications to artillery.
It was taken by Henry II of England in 1159, and returned to the barons of Castelnau at the end of the Hundred Years' War.
During the 17th century, the castle was improved in an aesthetical and practical way: large windows, richly decorated salons, balcony of honor.
The castle fall into disrepair after the death of the last Castelnau in 1715. In 1895 it was bought by Jean Mouliérat, a singer with the Paris Opéra Comique and also a collector of furniture and sacred artworks. He undertook the restoration and furnished the castle with his collection. After his death in 1932, the castle was given to the state. Visitors can see seven rooms in this fortress, restored and furnished in the medieval style.
Description
The castle of Castelnau-Brenenoux is located on the top of a hill, at the intersection of several valleys; among them is the Dordogne River. The castle is visible from a distance and easily recognizable by its walls of red stone.
The layout is nearly a triangle, with round towers at each angle. The square keep and the main building of the medieval period still remain. Its conception was very imposing, with three enclosing walls, wide curtain walls, and nine round towers.
A small village has surrounded the castle, along the slopes of the hill.

Château de Castelnau-Bretenoux

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Standing on the heights above the Dordogne Valley, this castle was built between 1519 and 1534 by Jeanne de Balsac, Lady of Montal. Never completely finished, this Renaissance masterpiece is distinguished by the exceptional wealth and quality of its sculptures, which stand comparison with those in royal palaces. Monumental staircase. Tapestries and furniture from the 16th and 17th centuries. Renaissance interior courtyard.
https://www.tourisme-lot.com/en/prepare-your-stay/sites-to-visit/chateau-de-montal-819308

Château de Montal

The castle of Saignes is a castle located in Saignes, France.The family of Lagarde is native of the seigneurial land of La Garde, located in the viscount of Turenne, in the Limousin, two places of Tulle. The oldest known member is Géraud de La Garde, lord of La Garde, who lived in 1240. From this family came Cardinal Geraud de la Garde de Daumar (died in Avignon, September 27, 1343), Master General of the Order of Preachers in 1342, son of Bernard I of La Garde (died in 1327) lord of La Garde and Daumar near Tulle. Pope Clement VI said he was of his blood, therefore a close relative. His brother, Étienne de La Garde, was appointed Archbishop of Arles in December 1350. Another brother, Guillaume de La Garde, was Archbishop of Braga. Bernard II of La Garde, Lord of the Garde and of Daumar, is their elder brother. Geraud II of La Garde who founded the branch of Saignes and Parlan is their cousin. According to Father Maria, the family of La Garde would have settled in Saignes around 1379, afterwards taking the name of La Garde de Saignes. The "castrum de Siognâ" was acquired in 1379 by Bertrand de Lagarde from Argentat. The origin of the branch of the Gardens of Saignes and Parlan is Géraud II, fixed at Argentat in 1364. In the enumeration of 1504, Barthelemy de Lagarde is lord of Saignes and Lunegarde. He declares that he possesses at Saignes "a house and an old tower, and its dependencies." The present castle was built by Pierre IV de Lagarde, born at the end of the fifteenth century, died in 1566. It was covered with honors by Francis I. In 1518, he was appointed adviser to the parliament of Toulouse. In 1519 he was his extraordinary ambassador to the kings of Poland, Bohemia, and Hungary to ask them not to oppose his pretensions to the empire. After the battle of Pavia and the imprisonment of the king, the regent of France sent him to Edinburgh, where he stayed between June and November, to oppose the project of the King of England Henry VIII to strengthen the bonds between the king, England and Scotland by a marriage of Jacques V with the only daughter he had then and loosening the secular ties between Scotland and France. After the Treaty of Cambrai he was sent by Francis I to Portugal to King John III in October 1529. The object of this mission was to obtain aid from the King of Portugal for a loan of 400,000 ecus for the payment of the Ransom of the king and to allow the liberation of his sons, the Dauphin and the Duke of Orleans, held hostage in Madrid. During the troubles of Guyenne which led to the banning of the parliament of Bordeaux, he was sent with the office of first president of the Tournelle between 1 January 1549 and 10 August 1550.
http://www.frenchchateau.net/chateaux-of-midi-pyrenees/chateau-de-saignes.html

Château de Saignes

Château d'Aynac is one of Aynac Aynac castle located in the Lot, France. The building is classified as historical monuments in 1988.The Lordship of Aynac belonged to a side branch of the house of Pierre II Turenne Turenne, son of Hugues de Turenne, lord of Saint-Genest, married Saure Aynac, daughter of Archambaud, lord of Aynac partly quoted in 12712. Found Annet de Turenne, lord of Aynac, married 11 February 1495 to Jacquette Genouillac, daughter of Jean Lord of Assier, Jacques sister Genouillace said Galiot Genouillace, Lord of Assier, equerry, grand master artillery, Jacques niece Genouillace, master of artillery in 1479 under Louis XI and Charles VIII. Knight of the Order of the King, gentleman of his chamber, lieutenant of artillery, Galiot companion Genouillace, he was taken prisoner at the battle of Pavia. To pay his ransom, his wife has to sell part of the land of the barony of Aynac in 1526. His grand-son, Galliot de Turenne († 1569) was made the heir of Galiot Genouillace in its 1523 and 1544 wills, if his descendants, François Genouillace, Baron d'Assier, and Jeanne Genouillace, Viscountess Uzes, have no descendants. François de Turenne (circa 1548-1633), son of Galliot, Baron de Molières and Aynac, married in 1591 to Antoinette Pontaniez, only daughter of Antoine Salers lord. He began his career in the company of the Count of Sancerre. He paid tribute to his land to Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, Duc de Bouillon and Vicomte de Turenne. Flotard III Turenne (1600-after 1675), son of François, baron of Aynac. He was married in 1633 with Claude Gourdon Genouillace, Aubepeyre lady, sister of John Paul Ricard Gourdon de Genouillac (1621-1681), Count of Vaillac, first equerry to Philippe d'Orléans, daughter of Louis II Gourdon and Genouillac, field marshal, and Françoise de Cheyradour, lady Aubepeyre. He served as a handlebar in the company of gendarmes Themines Marshal, his cousin. He served in the army commanded qur Marshal Thémines in Guyenne to fight against the rebels Protestants. He received a commission from Louis XIII to get to Cardaillac to contain the Protestants of Upper Quercy who were holding meetings. Louis II de Turenne, son of Flotard III, Marquis of Aynac, died in 1697. He married in 1646 with Marie-Hélène de Felzins, daughter of Jean, Baron of Felzins, Marquis Montmurat, first baron of Quercy. Brother of John Turenne of Aubepeyre (born in 1643), said the count Aubepeyre, lord of Saint-Yrieix, married in 1671 to Catherine de Felzins. John Paul Turenne (born 1665), Marquis of Aynac and Montmurat, Baron of Felzins and Gramat. He married in 1698 with Marie Victoire de Durfort, Baroness Gramat, sister of the Earl of Boissières, Seneschal and Governor of Rouergue, commander for the King in Quercy, daughter of Armand de Durdort, Earl of Boissières and Anne of TOUCHEBOEUF, Countess of Clermont Vertillac.Jean Louis. Anne de Turenne (circa 1700-1767), Marquis of Aynac, married in 1732 with Anne Claude Robert Lignerac. Claude Joseph Turenne Aynac (1734-1771), son of Jean Louis Anne de Turenne, brother of René Joseph Turenne (circa 1735-1777), Marquis of Aynac, married in 1772 with Pauline Gabrielle Baschi Pignan ( towards 1742-1833). Henri Amédée de Turenne Mercure Aynac (1776-1853), Marquis of Aynac, married in 1799 with Claire Isabelle de Brignac Montarnaud (1781-1856) Gustave Joseph Romuald Edmond de Turenne Aynac (1803-1893), Marquis of Aynac, naval officer, married to Jeanne Adelaide Louis de La Tour du Pin La Charce (1812-1862) Guy Etienne de Turenne Aynac (1837-1905), Marquis of Aynac, general counsel of the Lot, married in 1874 with Elisabeth Alexandrine Berthier de Wagram (1849-1932), daughter of Napoléon Alexandre Berthier, Prince of Wagram. Louise (Louise Françoise Marie Josephe) Turenne Aynac, Stephen Guy Girl Turenne Aynac, married in 1895 with Count Bertrand (Bertrand Raymond Louis) de Toulouse-Lautrec Montfa, cousin of the painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and mayor of the town at the time of the separation of church and state, between 1904 and 1906, was the last descendant of the family to live in the castle.
http://www.frenchchateau.net/chateaux-of-midi-pyrenees/chateau-d-aynac.html

Château d'Aynac

The building of the fortress of La Treyne, in 1342 according to the earliest written records, is probably due to Guillaume and Hughes de Roffilhac. On the 27th january of 1356, on the Avignon Bridge, Noble Guillaume de Rofflihac swore homage – naked head, on his knees and with clasped hands – to ” Glorious man, Lord Guillaume of Beaufort, knight, Viscount of Turenne for the castle or the fort or future fort in the locality of La Treyne, on the edge of the Dordogne “.
In the 12th may of 1462, the Viscount of Turenne gave the seigneury of La Treyne to the noble man Annet du Cluzel ,” with all justice haute, moyenne et basse “, certainly for the Roffilhac branch was died out. The knight Annet du Cluzel got to build the church of Meyraguet in which he was buried. His stone recumbent figure, picturing him with his armour of knight, is still visible in the seignorial chapel, on the left of the transept of the church of Meyraguet. In the 7th may of 1519, noble Jean de la Treyne, noble Annet du Cluzel’s son, married noble Jeanne de Coustin de Bourzolles.
In 1540, Jean de la Treyne swore homage to the King for “the castle, the woods, the allowances and full justice ” he had received from the Viscount of Turenne, François de la Tour III, Order of the King knight and captain of hundred men of gentle birth of his House.
In 1533, Louis de Cluzel is chosen as Lord of La Treyne. At the time of his death; he was murdered in 1592; the seigneury of La Treyne is granted to his son, Jacques Galiot du Cluzel, a squire who swore homage to the Viscount of Turenne, in the 2nd december of 1600.
In 1607, after the death of Jacques Galiot du Cluzel, without posterity, Jean de La Ramière, Pierre and Galienne de Cluzel’s son, took the title of Lord of La Treyne. The history retains the seigneury of La Treyne passed, in 1607, from the Cluzel to the La Ramière. Howewer, if we considered the women and the men devolution should have been equal, The Cluzel were still in possession of the seigneury of La Treyne. Just as in 1711, when Marie of La Ramière brought La Treyne to her husband Jean III of Cardaillac.
Pierre de La Ramière, husband of Galienne de Cluzel, Lord of La Treyne was such a leading light in his party and in his family that he earns our attention. Pierre, so-called “The Captain”, embraced the Protestant religion. He was credited with the victory of La Roche l’Abeille, in Haute-Vienne, on June 25, 1569. During this battle, Henry of Navarre, only 16 years old , took up arms for the first time under the watchful eye of his mother, Jeanne d’ Albret. The friendship between the will-be King of France and his comrade in arms Pierre de La Ramière dates from this period. (facsimile of the Henri IV letter to Pierre de la Ramière).
However, Henry of Navarre, rousing the cavalry with its famous words, “Let my white panache be your rallying point, you”ll always find it on the way of honour and victory”, had to abjure Protestantism to conquer the throne of France, allegedly with the remark, “Paris is well worth a Mass.”( 1594 ). Meanwhile, La Treyne, which was an Hugenots den, had been set on fire in 1586 by order of the Duke of the Mayenne, Lieutenant of King Henri III. In 1662 a decree of the Parliament of Toulouse ordered the destruction of La Treyne, already ruined by the fire, “considering the rebellion and excesses ” of Jean de la Ramière’s son, guilty of lese-majesty.
Jean de La Ramière died in 1616. His remains were buried, at night and by force, by his sons in the seignorial church of Meyraguet in spite of a royal decree which prescribed the bodies of the deceased having belong to the reformed Protestant religion couldn’t “be buried in the catholic cemeteries or in the churches on the pretext that the graves of their fathers are still there or they have some rights on the seigneury.” Once the wars of Religion were ended and a period of relative calm began, the La Ramière repaired their dwelling of La Treyne. So, in King Louis XIII ‘s time, they restored the castle, lowering the square tower of the XIVth – the former dungeon was less and less necessary to defend La Treyne – They joined side by side a main building flanked by a big round tower and the north of the square tower.
This restauration of La Treyne was complete in 1643 when Gédéon The First, Lord of La Treyne swore homage to the Viscount of Turenne, Frédéric-Maurice de la Tour The First, Duke of Bouillon and Prince of Sedan “For the Castle and the Seigneury “
His son, Gédéon, embraced the catholic religion at the end of the XVIIIth century acccording to his will on April 5, 1701, terminating nearly two centuries of Protestant resistance. Pierre, son of Gédéon II, died in 1710 after having made his will for his sister Marie de La Ramière, who was to marry Jean III of Cardaillac, Lord of Végennes (Canton of Beaulieu on the Dordogne in Corrèze), artillery captain, knight of Saint-Louis, the following year. Jean III, deceased on March 20, 1752, was buried in the church of Meyraguet.
At the time of the death of his wife, Marie de La Ramière, lady of Cardaillac, the seigneury of La Treyne is devoluted to their son , François-Emmanuel de Cardaillac, who married young lady Jeanne of Montalembert on January 28, 1748.histoire
The House of La Ramière, classified among the early Houses of the Chivalry, would have preserved La Treyne if the devolution of the seigneury could have been done through the women. In the middle of the XVIIIth century, the Viscount of Turenne gambled away his viscounty which was the last one to be bound to the Kingdom of France.
By letters patent of the King of December 29, 1759, François-Emmanuel was granted the barony and the marquisate of Cardaillac in Quercy. So, François-Emmanuel, Marquis of Cardaillac, swore homage to the King for the grounds and the seigneury of La Treyne and Meyraguet from 1760 to 1778. He died in 1782.
His son Joseph, born in 1752, married Charlotte de Roquemaurel on March 27, 1783. Lieutenant of the King for the province of Guyenne, he died out in the castle of Treyne on September 28, 1822.
On september, 20 th,1910, Jean-Jacques-Joseph-Frédéric, Marquis of Cardaillac, grandson of Joseph de Cardaillac sold the castle and the domain of La Treyne to Mister Auguste-Gabriel Savard, a industrialist who invented the Fix jewel. He sold the castle where his family had lived in more than two centuries and even five centuries thanks to the women branches of Cluzel and La Ramière.
At that time, La Treyne had forgotten its former glory. By chance, all the XXth century long , the successive owners displayed lot of energy to restore its original Louis XIV appearance, with comfort of course !
Mister Savard made major transformations and asked Eouard André, one of the greatest lanscape gardener of this period, to draw the grounds and the french formal garden.
In 1922, Mister Fontana, spanish industrialist, bought the domain and carried out important fixtures in the castle, specially the woodworks of the Great Lounge and of the Music Lounge.
At the end of his life, a house painter hadn’t been able to forget the emotion he felt when he entered the Great Lounge where painters bustled about the decoration of the splendid coffered ceiling : “The fervour and the joy were so great that it was like entering a medieval cathedral. I had the feeling that everybody sang ….”
The children of Mr Fontana, who live in South America, never fail to come back to La Treyne when they stay in Europe; looking for their chilhood memory of happiness.
During the Second World War, André Chamson, a famous writer of the French Academy, took charge of the department of Egyptian Antiquities to the Louvre Museum and he looked after some priceless treasures of the museum, temporarily stored in La Treyne to be protected; among which the famous ” Squatting Scribe”.
His daughter, Dominique Hébrard , relates this episode in her book ” La chambre de Goethe “. André Chamson was grateful for this stay and admired the outstanding beauty of the site, so he went on protecting La Treyne by listing it as picturesque site of the Lot (Ministerial Decree november, 6th, 1946).
On April, 10 th, 1954, Mister Santiard and Mrs Bulteau joined their passion for the works of art by purchasing the castle. They made major renovation works both outside and inside. From that time, the Château de la Treyne served as a case to present their magnificent collection of Renaissance (XVI-th century) furniture and objects which one can admire nowadays in the Bourdeilles Castle (Dordogne).
Since 1982, the Gombert family, native from Aveyron (they hold themself just trustee of this beautiful house) work with passion to keep the castle alive with cultural events (exhibitions, concerts) and make it appreciate by its hosts.
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This historical record has been written thanks to the archives collection of the Château de la Treyne, set by Jean de Cardaillac at the departmental archives of the Lot and to Jean Calmon’s article headed ” Le Château de La Treyne et ses seigneurs “and published by the Bulletin de la Société des Etudes du Lot (1st quater, 1957).
http://www.chateaudelatreyne.com