Chateau de Miremont

  1. Home page
  2. VISIT
  3. Our heritage sites
  4. Chateau de Miremont

The 11th-12th centuries saw, in Périgord, the proliferation of stone-built castrums of which Miremont is a part. It is built in a strategic location, at the crossroads of communication axes (Sarlat-Périgueux, Brive-la-Gaillarde-Bergerac) allowing to impose control and taxes on men and goods. The rocky outcrop on which it is built dominates the Manaurie and Brungidou valleys. It is undoubtedly its best defense system in the south while in the north extends a plain which is protected by a ditch. Very quickly, a village is organized at the foot of the spur, under the protection of the lord.

An important defensive system is put in place: a first enclosure surrounds the castle. Its curtain walls include a keep with flat buttresses to the north as well as bastions to the south and west. The ditch that protects the more vulnerable northern flank is about three meters wide at the level of the drawbridge and twelve meters deep. On this interior enclosure leans the village closed by a second enclosure punctuated by doors allowing to control the access. Traces of cave dwellings are still visible in the rock. Périgord is going to undergo many wars: hundred years war (which will last almost 300 years in this region), of religion, revolt of the crunchies?

The castle will live to the rhythm of battles and changes in customs. Minor alterations were made in the 13th-14th centuries, while in the 15th-16th centuries the keep and the bastions were deeply disrupted (redefinition of the floors and directions of traffic, openings with mullions). At the same time, a new castle is built in the western part of the courtyard, more to the taste of the time: large openings, light, space etc? Today it has almost disappeared on the surface but the texts indicate that it included more than twenty-five pieces!

Indeed, like many buildings, Miremont carries the traces of the Revolution. The castle will then be emptied of its objects and then serve as a quarry for the surrounding dwellings or public works (the construction of the viaduct below is sometimes cited).

Since that time, few changes have been noted on the frame. It seems that Armand Viré (speleologist, archaeologist and French dowser) intervened on the castle in the 1930s. He would then have carried out excavations and pendulum searches but the results did not reach us. Today everything remains to be discovered!

To find out more: http://miremontassocham.wix.com

+

Location : 24260 Mauzens-et-Miremont / New Aquitaine / France