Castle of Calonges dans le Lot-et-Garonne

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Key figures

Origin and history

The castle of Calonges, located in the department of Lot-et-Garonne, succeeds a medieval castrum attested as early as 1271. The site was said to have housed a Roman post guarding an ancient route to the Mas-d'Agenas. In the 13th century, the seigneury belonged to the family of Cantiran, then came under English domination after the Treaty of Amiens (1279). Edward I of England appointed commissioners to receive the tributes of local lords, including Bernard de Lart, in 1286. The castle is then divided between several families (from Calonges, Laur, Cantiran), reflecting a complex feudal organization.

In the 15th century, the seigneury changed hands via matrimonial alliances: Peyroton de Grignols (1473-1477) gave the castle to Jacques de Chaussade by exchange with Jeanne de Grignols. The latter, adviser to the Bordeaux parliament, modernises the estate and initiates trials for territorial boundaries with Alain d的Albret. His son, James II, embraced the Reformation and became a Protestant leader. Sentenced to death in 1570 with his brother Gaston, he opened his Langoiran castle to Huguenot troops. The family of Chaussade, who remained Protestant, suffered successive confiscations and exiles, notably under Louis XIV.

The present castle was rebuilt by Jacques III de Chaussade after 1622 (or around 1590 according to Jean-Pierre Babelon), integrating a Protestant temple near the communes. Governor of Montpellier in 1622, he obtained the erection of the baronnie in marquisat. His heirs, Marie and Judith-Suzanne, perpetuate the Protestant lineage: Marie marries Jean Le Réverend de Bougy, whose son, Jean-Jacques, fled to Holland in 1693 after his forced abjuration. The estate passed in 1714 to the d'Aydie by marriage, then was sold in 1758 to the Duke of La Vauguyon, pair of France.

Seized as a demigrated property in 1792, the castle was sold as a national property in 1794 to Mr. Grenier, who partially transformed it into a tobacco dryer around 1818. Ranked a historic monument in 1959, it preserves a brick architecture typical of the Renaissance, with diamond-pointed windows. His plan in square, unfinished (missing left wing), bears witness to the vicissitudes of his construction and his tormented history, linked to the wars of Religion and the persecutions of Protestants.

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