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Origin and history

The Château de Sémignan is an old fortified house built in the early 14th century a few kilometers from Saint-Laurent-Médoc, Gironde. Placed on a marshy land offering natural protection, it illustrates the defensive architecture of the Medoc vassals. Its current state, despite changes in the 16th and 19th centuries, preserves remarkable elements such as a square tower crowned with mâchicoulis, water ditches and a double enclosure.

The first written mention of the castle dates from 1322 or 1323, during a tribute given by Gassion de La Marche to Amanieu VII of Albret, lord of Vertheuil. The seigneury then changed hands several times: acquired around 1344-1346 by Bérard I de Vayres (son of Amanieu VII), she moved to Amanieu de Langoiran, then to Bertrand de Montferrant in 1429, before being owned by Jean de Luc in 1480. In the 16th century, it was owned by Gaston III de Foix, Count of Candale. On the eve of the Revolution, Delphine de Brassier, widow of the Baron of Budos, was co-governer.

The building, designed as a fortified farm, could have served as a safe for iron ingots and ores in the northern Medoc in the Middle Ages. Its U-shaped plan, surrounded by ditches and equipped with a defensive tower, confirms its military vocation. The archers, cannons and murderers, now partially closed, testify to its role in local protection. The mills dependent on the castle (Bernada, Ballogue-Garrit, Larousse) have disappeared, but their existence attests to its economic importance.

The castle, which was classified as a general inventory in 1986, has been in poor and private condition since 1996 and has been the subject of restoration efforts carried out by the association La Crusade Semignanise. It aims to transform the site into a cultural place combining historical heritage and contemporary creation, while preserving its medieval features and additions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

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