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Origin and history

The castle of Gavaudun is an ancient castle today in ruins, built between the 12th and 13th centuries on a rocky spur overlooking the valley of the Lède, in Gavaudun (Lot-et-Garonne). Located on a major axis between the Périgord and the Agenese, it was mentioned in 1160 during a siege led by the bishop of Périgueux to dislodge bandits or heretics. Soon after, it became a key point during the Hundred Years' War, alternating in French and English hands.

In the 14th century, the castle passed between the families of Durfort, Lustrac and then Belsunce, each leaving a political and military imprint. Lustrac's family, notably Arnaud (known as Naudonnet), an anti-English captain, made it a strategic base. In the 16th century, Marguerite de Lustrac, heiress of the castle, married Geoffroy de Caumont there in 1568, before the estate passed to the Auray and then to the Belsunce in the 17th century. The latter, in debt, sold it in 1686 to Marquis Armand I of Belsunce.

During the Revolution, the castle was partially destroyed and sold as a national property in 1795–96. The commune of Gavaudun became its owner in 1796. Today, only the 13th century dungeon, enhanced to the 14th, 25 meters high, remains. Ranked a historical monument in 1862 (tour) and 1987 (rest of the castle), it bears witness to medieval defensive architecture and the conflicts that marked the South-West of France.

Access to the castle, built on a rock at the top, was once made by a ladder in a vertical well dug into the rock. The village developed at the foot of the cliff, along the river. The site illustrates medieval fortification techniques and adaptation to geographical constraints, with a 75-metre-long sun terrace 6-15 metres wide.

Historical sources mention notarial acts, wills and family alliances that shaped its history, such as the marriage of Marguerite de Lustrac with Jacques d'Albon de Saint-André in 1544, or the controversial sale of 1686. Local excavations and archives (Gallia Christiana, seizure of 1271) confirm its role in feudal and religious conflicts, especially during the Wars of Religion, when the village became Protestant.

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