Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The castle of Paluel, located in the Black Perigord (Dordogne), is a 15th century building built by a bastard of the Gimel family, heir to the seigneury. It dominates the valley of Sainte-Nathalène from a promontory, two kilometers from the village. Its architecture includes a two towered house body, a central stair tower, and a 12th century rectangular dungeon connected by a narrow passage. Wood mâchicoulis and torchi crown the whole, surrounded by courtines. Enlisted in the Supplementary Inventory of Historic Monuments in 1927, it served as a decoration for the film Captain Fracasse in 1928.

In the 17th century, the castle passed to the family of Durfort, then was bought in 1701 by Antoine d'Aymeric, then abandoned for a century. Its descendants kept it until the 19th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, Prince Louis de Croÿ partially restored it by adding a neo-Gothic wing, while using the stones of the nearby castle of Commarque, in ruins. During the 1930s, it allowed the extreme right-wing terrorist group the Cagoule to store a stockpile of weapons in the underground.

During the Second World War, the prince of Croÿ revealed the existence of this arsenal to the judge of Sarlat in 1942, fearing its use by the Germans after the invasion of the free zone. The weapons, transferred to court, end up serving the Resistance. On 28 June 1944, the castle was set on fire by the German column Wilde, which killed a young resistor on the spot. A stele commemorates this event. In ruins, the castle is not restored and is invaded by vegetation. It became the property of Professor Jean Lassner, pioneer of anesthesia.

In the 20th century, the castle served as a setting for several films, including Le Tatoué (1968) with Louis de Funès and Jean Gabin, where fake decorations mask his state of ruin. In 1998, scenes from Forever, a Cinderella story was shot there. In 1980, the corpse of a drug dealer was found in his well. After the death of Jean Lassner in 2007, the castle was sold in 2010 to Kevin Cartledge, who cleans it before auctioning it in 2017.

Admitted to Étienne Cluzel for 853 000 euros, the castle is the subject of an attempt to buy back by a Luxembourg company, finally rejected. Since 2022, Étienne Cluzel has begun his safeguard, considering rebuilding the 12th century dungeon, collapsed. The site has been open to the public from July to September since 2022.

External links