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Origin and history

The castle of Lunegarde finds its medieval origins as a fief linked to the abbey of Saint-Pierre de Marcilhac-sur-Célé. First possession of the Gourdon family, he passed between 1290 and 1301 to Guillaume Balène, then by marriage to Mafre de Solignac. Destroyed during the Hundred Years' War, the fief then changed hands several times: at the Gauléjac de Puycalvel (15th century), at Jean d'Auriole (1504), then at the Lagarde de Reilhac, Ginouilhac, and Crussol d'Uzès. In the 17th century, it was strengthened to Antoine Vidal de Lapize, whose descendants rebuilt the present building.

The present castle, located on the edge of the village of Lunegarde, is built in two phases by the Vidal de Lapize: the house and west wing were built in 1736, while the east wing was completed in 1773. Private property still owned by the heirs of this family, it was registered with the Historical Monuments on 16 September 1991. Although not open to the public, its architecture illustrates the evolution of seigneurial residences in Quercy in the Enlightenment century.

The original site of the castle was probably near the village church, as the historical sources show. The fief, originally linked to Marcilhac's singing, reflects the feudal dynamics and matrimonial alliances that marked the Quercy of the Middle Ages in modern times. The writer Pierre Benoît s'en inspired elsewhere for his novel Lunegarde, published in 1942, thus immortalizing this place in literature.

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