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Heritage classified

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Origin and history

The château du Colombier is a seigneurial residence built in the 14th century, then renovated in the 15th and 19th centuries, located in the commune of Salles-la-Source (Aveyron, Occitanie). Built below Mondalazac, it dominates the Cruou Valley, a strategic medieval route linking Marcillac-Vallon and Salles-la-Source. Its name comes from its two dovecotes, symbols of seigneurial right under the Old Regime, where pigeons were raised for their fiente (colombine), a popular agricultural resource. The site, originally a fortified den, was erected on the side of a comb, exploiting a circus of fertile meadows watered by springs.

In 1437 the castle passed into the hands of the family of La Panouse by the marriage of Amalric de La Panouse (son of John I, Seneschal de Carcassonne) with Marguerite de Salles, heiress of the estate. Fortified from the 11th century until the Wars of Religion, it embodies the defensive and domestic architecture of the Rouergue. In the 20th century, Antoine de La Panouse (1914–2006), a distant heir and founder of Thoiry Park, undertook its restoration, saving its painted walls, mâchicoulis and other remains. Sold as National Property in 1792, then bought under the Restoration by César Alexandre de La Panouse, the castle, left abandoned, was vandalized before its rehabilitation from 1996.

The building consists of a primitive (14th century) mâchicoulis square dungeon, a U-house body around a paved courtyard, and a round tower at the junction of the north and east wings. The entrance door, ogival, is framed by two stairways with screws. The interior preserves rooms with painted ceilings (west wing) and windows in aisle (opposite wing). Ranked a Historic Monument in 1995, it illustrates the evolution of noble habitat from the Middle Ages to the 19th century, mixing defensive, agricultural (colombier) and residential functions.

The estate, originally owned by the Salles family, was raised on a Gallo-Roman site. Its dungeon, used as a dovecote, and its successive changes reflect the adaptations to political contexts (the Hundred Years War, Revolution) and social (seigneurial right). Today, the castle, partially open to the visit, bears witness to the feudal history of the Rouergue and the persistence of aristocratic lines like the Panous, linked to this territory for more than six centuries.

Future

In 1872 de Raoul de La Panouse married his cousin Marie Marguerite Angélique de Vogüe, the only heiress of the Château de Thoiry. Paul de La Panouse founded the famous "Plot de Thoiry" in 1968.

It was in 80 that Annabelle de La Panouse, his wife, fell in love with the Château du Colombier. She will encourage her husband to restore the castle as part of a project featuring a park where the theme of medieval art of living is developed.

See also in the village of Salles the source, this magnificent waterfall.

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