Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

Carles Castle, located in Saillans en Gironde, has its origins in the early 14th century, during the Hundred Years War. Its construction begins with a south square tower and two round towers pierced with murderers, defensive elements characteristic of the era. The north facade, later, dates from the next century. In 1451, Jean de Dunois, a companion of Jeanne d'Arc, stationed there before taking back Fronsac to the English, a key episode of the Guyenne's reconquest.

At the end of the 15th century, the castle belonged to the Carles family, an influential Bordeaux line. Vital Carles, canon of Bordeaux, founded an intellectual heritage there, while Lancelot de Carles (1560-1568), bishop of Riez and poet close to the Pleiade, strengthened its literary prestige. In the 16th century, the castle lost its military role but became a meeting place for the spirits of the Enlightenment: Montaigne and La Boétie were bound by alliance, their wives being sisters and heirs of the Carles.

Marguerite de Carles, widow of La Boétie, inherited the estate in 1567. The castle reached its cultural climax in the 18th century under Marie-Charlotte de Boufflers, lady of spirit near Rousseau, Diderot and Mozart. His Parisian salon, called the Temple, radiates in Europe, but the Revolution reduces the estate: sold as a national good, he loses his outbuildings (chapel, orange grove) to the advantage of vineyards. Partially restored in the 19th and 20th centuries, it preserves North African tiles and a terrace with views of the vineyards of Fronsac and Saint-Émilion.

Ranked a historic monument in 1991, the castle today bears witness to its successive strata: medieval towers, Renaissance facade, and eclectic interior decoration. Its history combines armed conflicts, literary patronage and agricultural transformations, reflecting the upheavals of the Gironde from the 14th to the 20th century.

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