Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château de Combret, located in Nauviale (Aveyron), has its origins in the 13th century, as evidenced by its elongated house and square tower. Originally owned by the seigneurs of Beaucaire, it was divided between several coseigneurs, including Gibelin de Panat and Hugues d'Arjac. This castle, designed for the watch and storage of cereals, illustrates the medieval defensive architecture of the Rouergue, with an 18-metre dungeon without openings on the north and east side.

In the 17th century, the castle underwent a major transformation to become a home to the fields adapted to the vineyard. The stables, now disappeared, then bordered the wall of still visible enclosure, pierced by a 17th century wooden gate decorated with columns. The terraces built at that time, decorated with the arms of the Tullier and Meynard families (allied by the marriage of Jean de Tullier and Madeleine de Meynard), reflect this transition to an agricultural and residential vocation. The dungeon, formerly dedicated to the watch, was then pierced with sills and equipped with a screw staircase.

The 19th century marked a new phase of modernization under the impetus of the Marquis de Valady. In 1889, he redistributed the interior spaces (living room divided into bedrooms, displaced dining room) and added exterior staircases inspired by 17th century balustrades. The lauze roof and the skylights are redone, while the central stair tower is abrased. These works are part of a desire to adapt the castle to the comfort standards of the time, while preserving medieval elements such as the bay crosses or the vaulted room of the dungeon, formerly used as a cellar.

The castle changed hands several times from the 16th century: sold in 1595 by Antoine d'Arjac to Hugues Caulet, then in 1641 to Jean de Tullier, treasurer general of finance at Montauban. After passing into the hands of the Cognac and the Viguier de Grun (including Henriette, who brought him in dowry to Valady's family in 1779), he escaped the sale as a good emigrated in 1793. Since then, he has remained in the offspring of the Yzarn de Freissinet de Valady. Ranked a historic monument in December 2021, it today protects its facades, roofs, the large living room, the ramp-on-rail staircase, and the enclosure wall with its gate.

The building is distinguished by its spatial organization: the body of rectangular houses, flanked by a scallop and a dungeon, dominates a grassy terrace to the south. The west façade, supported by foothills, preserves an occult Romanesque bay, while the façade is adorned with splint windows. Inside, the kitchen enlarged in the 18th century by Victoire de Boissière next to old cellars converted into reception rooms. The castle, isolated from the village by its enclosure wall, thus embodies almost eight centuries of history, between military function, wine-growing and aristocratic residence.

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