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Origin and history

Château du Castellas, located in the commune of Saint-Bonnet-de-Salendrinque in the Gard, finds its origins on a site probably occupied by a Roman oppidum linked to a gypsum career. As early as 864, a Carolingian fortress, called " Castellas", was built on a rocky piton to control the tracks between Saint-Hippolyte-du-Fort and Anduze. This first building, composed of a two-storey square tower and a palissade, evolves in the 12th century under the influence of the House of Anduze, with the addition of a crenellated wall and a three-storey dungeon.

In the Middle Ages, the castle was a fief of the lords of Saint-Bonnet, vassals of the bishops of Nîmes. In 1174-75, Bernard VI of Anduze paid tribute for this castle to Bishop Aldebert of Uzès. Barre's family, including the knight Pierre de Barre (companion of Guillaume de Nogaret), remained in charge until the 16th century. The successive transformations give it its "L" shape, with vaulted rooms (cradle, warheads) and facilities such as a bread oven and a sharpener, reflecting its adaptation to residential and defensive needs.

In the Renaissance, the castle passed from the hands of the nobility of the sword (François de Taulignan) to a nobility of robe (De Bucelli family, then De Vignolles). Isabeau des Urcières de Gaudette, heiress at the beginning of the seventeenth century, undertook important works: elevation of the north and south towers (1617-1620), addition of sled windows, construction of a calade in the courtyard, and development of a staircase in the dungeon. These beautifications, interrupted by religious unrest (1622), transformed the fortress into a home of pleasure, albeit partially unfinished.

The Revolution marked a turning point: in 1792, the north tower was set on fire by revolutionaries, and the castle, sold as a national property in 1794, became a magnatery and then an agricultural building. Abandoned and ruined, it was bought in 1973 and has since been rehabilitated. Ranked a Historic Monument in 1980, it illustrates the evolution of a medieval fortress as a seigneurial residence, reflecting architectural and social changes between the 12th and 17th centuries.

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