Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

Beynac Castle, built in the 12th century by the Barons of Beynac, was used to control the Dordogne Valley, a strategic border during the Hundred Years War. His square Romanesque dungeon, flanked by platter-side defences (double enclosure, barbacan), illustrates his military role. The fortress, which remained French in front of the English castle of Castelnaud, was divided between two family branches from 1241 to 1379, before being reunited.

In the 17th century, the apartments were embellished with woodwork, painted ceilings and a Renaissance fireplace carved of bucranes. The Perigord States Hall welcomed the nobility of the four local baronies. The castle also housed a 15th century oratory decorated with frescoes (Pietà, Saint Christophe) and tapestries depicting seigneurial scenes. Beynac's family died in 1753, transmitting the estate to the Beaumonts, which kept it until 1961.

In 1962, Lucien Grosso, a Marseille entrepreneur, bought the castle at auction for 170,000 francs and undertook his restoration with his wife Denise. Without an heir, they left the site in 1999 in Alberic de Montgolfier, a senator passionate about heritage. Ranked a historic monument in 1944, the castle today attracts 125,000 annual visitors (2022) and has served as a setting for films such as Jeanne d'Arc (1999) or The Last Duel (2020).

Architecturally, the castle combines medieval austerity (donjon crenelé, 150 m on the Dordogne) and Renaissance refinements. The irregular quadrilateral, protected by a double enclosure, includes a spelt bastion and remodeled houses in the 16th-17th centuries. Nearby, a rectangular two-storey building, perhaps an ancient presidial, intrigues by its regular apparatus on the last level, suggesting a room of appartment.

The external defences (poterno, turrets, terraces) and the commons complete the whole. The site dominates the village of Beynac-et-Cazenac, in Dordogne, in the Black Perigord, an area marked by Franco-English rivalries. The preserved frescoes and tapestries offer a rare testimony of seigneurial and religious life in the Middle Ages.

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