VENTADOUR CASTLE

Perched on a rock at 562 m altitude, a rocky spur which dominates the Luzège gorges by two hundred metres, the Château de Ventadour stands its imposing remains in a site which evokes both the power of medieval feudalism and the blossoming of courtly love to which the name of the troubadour Bernard de Ventadour remains attached. The castral site was born in the 11th century when Ebles I, second son of Archambaud de Comborn, became viscount of Ventadour (1059). The oldest vestiges currently preserved go back to the end of the XIIth century. One can observe, still today, the ramparts, the round tower, the seigneurial dwelling and the chapel Saint-Georges. The castle commanded the viscounty of Ventadour, the towns of Ussel and Egletons. For more than a century (12th-13th centuries), the castle was a centre of artistic creation, one of the most important of the Occitan countries. The troubadours used to meet at the castle to create and compare their poems. Ebles II, viscount of the castle of Ventadour, was considered a master in the art of the "trobar". It was in this cultivated environment that Bernard de Ventadour was introduced to poetic creation. From 1472, the de Lévis family became mistress of these places by marriage. Over the following centuries, the fortress was gradually abandoned in favour of other houses. The Lévis-Ventadour were completely dislodged in 1793, when the castle was ransacked and sold to a blacksmith from Egletons. The ruins were then used as a stone reservoir for the construction of many houses. In 1895, the Lévis-Mirepois, cousin of the Lévis-Ventadour, became owners before donating it in 1988.