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Origin and history

The Rudel Castle, located in Blaye, is one of the few medieval testimonies preserved during the construction of the citadel in the seventeenth century. Built mainly in the 12th and 13th centuries on a rocky spur overlooking the Gironde estuary, it was used to protect the city from enemy incursions. Today in ruins, it illustrates the evolution of fortifications between the Middle Ages and the modern era, marked by its integration into Vauban's defensive network.

The site was fortified from ancient times, with a castrum mentioned in the fourth century by Ausone. In the 10th century, the Counts of Angoulême, the Rudel, took over and established their power. Jaufré Rudel (v. 1113–1148), troubadour, famous for his poems of luenh, embodies the golden age of the castle. The seigneury then passed into the hands of Anglo-Gascon lords until the integration of the Aquitaine into the French royal domain.

During the wars of religion, the castle was besieged by Calvinists and then strengthened under Louis XIII. In 1685, Vauban joined his 38-hectare citadel, transforming it into a home for governors. In 1814, its walls were partially razed for fear of an English seat. Abandoned, it fell into ruins until the excavations of the 1950s, which revealed elements such as a 17th century door exposed to the archaeological museum.

Ranked a historic monument in 2009 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Vauban Major Sites Network, the castle preserves six medieval towers (including the dungeon and the Archives Tower) and remains of the chapel Saint-Nicolas. Its triangular plan, with central courtyard and courtines, makes it an atypical example of aquitaine castral architecture.

The excavations of 1959 and the grants of the twenty-first century (such as the General Council in 2005) preserved these ruins. They bear witness to the historical strata of the site, from Roman fortifications to military adaptations of the modern era, to its role in Occitan culture and religious conflicts.

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