Castle of Beynac

The castle of Beynac is located on the commune of Beynac-and-Cazenac, in the department of the the Dordogne and more precisely in the black Périgord. This castle one of is best preserved and one of most famous of the area.

It is a moyenâgeuse construction , of austere pace, perched on the top of a cliff Calcaire dominating the borough over Right Bank of the the Dordogne.

History

The strong castle is built as of the 12th century by the barons de Beynac to lock the valley. The cliff being sufficient (150 m above the Dordogne) to discourage any climbing side valley, defenses accumulated side plate: double notched enclosure, double ditch of which one deepened a natural ravelin, doubles Barbacane.

The oldest part of the castle is a large Donjon Romance square, built by Maynard de Beynac; vertiginous, with rare borings, fastened of a Bretèche and a watch tower, accosted of a stair-well out of screw, thin like a buttress and finished by a crenelated terrace. On a side, a home of the same time is juxtaposed to him; it was improved and increased with. Other side, it is a home partly 14th century, to which a court and a serving staircase of square plan of the apartments of the 17th century are coupled. The apartments preserved woodworks and a painted ceiling of the 17th century; the room of the States guard a chimney Rebirth carved bucranes; this room gives on a small oratory entirely covered, at the 15th century, frescos among which a Pieta, a saint-Christophe, a Cène in which saint-Martial is the Master of hotel.

The first baron de Beynac being deceased, it is Adhémar de Beynac which takes the castle in hand. He dies without descent on his return of crusade in 1194. The castle thus returns to its direct suzerain, the duke of Aquitaine, no one other that Richard Lion-hearted. It hardly kept it a long time since in 1199, it was reached of an arrow of crossbow and succumbed about it. The following year, the castle becomes again property of the family of Beynac.

At the time of the War One hundred Year old, the fortress of Beynac was one of the French fortified towns. The the Dordogne was used then as border between France and England; not far from there, on the other side of the Dordogne, the Château of Castelnaud was with the hands of the English.

This area of the Dordogne was the theater many fights of influence, competitions and sometimes combat between partisans of the English and in favor of the French. It should be said that placed as it is it, Beynac was dedicated to poke covetousnesses: at the border of the possessions of the rival kings, it makes figure with the Château of Marqueyssac of advanced station vis-a-vis Castelnaud and Fayrac which supervise the ones the others. So much so that at the local level, the Franco-English conflicts are concretized in almost permanent confrontations between Castelnaud and Beynac: it is true that their respective lords are themselves in competition and seek to affirm their own power on the Périgord.

However the castles more often fell by the trick and the intrigue that by the attacks, because the weapons necessary to the catch of such castle-forts were extremely expensive; only some large fortunate lords and the largest kings could get them.

In these disturbed times, the castle is only with its first changes of hands: as of 1214, it is Simon de Montfort, in full crusade against the Cathares, which takes it and shaves it. Nevertheless, the lord of Beynac preserves his stronghold, and benefits from it to rebuild it. Following the treated of Paris in 1259, Saint-Louis concedes the Périgord with Henri {{III}} so that Beynac becomes English. But the treaties are made to be broken, and when Philippe de Valois assembles on the throne in 1328, all the means are good to titillate its powerful neighbor: he confiscates Guyenne to him (and Beynac, therefore), from where some frictions which will lead to the Traité of Brétigny in 1360 by which France again yields the Guyenne to England (with Beynac); that's no problem, in 1368, the French give cover and offer themselves… Beynac, this time definitively.

With this little game, it is Pons de Beynac which carries it since in 1442, with the benevolence of Charles {{VII}}, it takes the castle of Castelnaud and the English drive out some (the One hundred Year old war touches at its end). Beynac becomes one of the four then baronnies of Périgord. But between the difficulties which the area and the wars of religion test the barons to control (Beynac is made huguenot), the decline approaches. Despite everything, Beynac is set up in marquisat in 1620 by Louis {{XIII}}. In 1753, Beynac falls out of stopper rod and passes by marriage to Beaumont which give up it little by little. The castle is repurchased in 1961 by Lucien Grosso and little by little restored with passion by its owner.

One can see there sumptuous tapestries representing of the scenes of hunting and other scenes of the life of the lords of the time.

The castle was used as framework with the turning of the films the Visitors of Jean-Marie Poiré, in 1993, the Girl of Artagnan of Bertrand Tavernier, in 1994, the Corridors of time of Jean-Marie Poiré, in 1997, and Jeanne d' Arc of Luc Besson, in 1999.

Barons de Beynac

Maynard (1115-1124)
Adhémar (1147-1189)
Richard Lion-hearted, king of England (1189-1199)
Pons 1st (1200-1209)
Strong (1238-1272)
Pons (1251-1300)
Adhémar (1269-1348)
Pons (- 1346)
Boson, known as Pons (1341-1348)
Pons V (1362-1366)
Philippe (- 1403)
Pons (1461-1463)
Jean-Bertrand (- 1485)
Geoffroy 1st (- 1530)
François (- 1537)
Geoffroy (- 1546)
Geoffroy
Guy 1st (1643-)
Isaac
Guy
Pierre
Marie-Claude (1732-18??)
Christophe-Marie (1764-18??)
Louis, known as Ludovic (1784-18??)
Christophe-Amable-Victoire (1831-18??)
Soffrey-Paul-Louis-Armand (1857-19??)
Amable-Avit-Christophe (1895-)
Pierre-Aime-Soffrey-Armand (1929-)

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