Château de Barasc

The Château de Béduer is a 13th-century feudal castle in the commune of Béduer in the Lot département of France. The castle and its dependencies dominate the village of Béduer and overlook the valley of the River Célé. The buildings show evidence of construction from the 13th to 17th centuries with both Romanesque and 17th-century architecture. It is set in grounds of 40 acres.

The castle is privately owned. Together with a number of holiday houses around the château, it can be rented for holidays, weddings or other special events.

The château buildings date back to the 13th century, although earlier foundations have been found below the 13th-century construction. Of the medieval castle, little more than the general outline remains: a "U" shape, open to the north. There was a fourth side to the square, possibly stables, which seems to have been demolished in the 18th century.

The keep, the oldest part of the building, dates back to 1204. It is a 25-metre-high rectangular tower, originally taller, losing its top floor after the Revolution. On an eight-metre-square base, its walls are two metres thick and give it an internal floor area of only four metres square.

To the north of the keep are the remains of the chapel, of which only the lower floors remain. The upper floor was demolished and replaced by a terrace during the Second World War.

To the east of the courtyard is the main building with its two-metre-thick outer walls demonstrating its medieval origins. Inside, La Grande Salle, two storeys in height, has a gallery running along two sides at first-floor level. The hall is notable for its 15th-century chimney (the upper part restored in the 19th century) and for its 17th-century painted ceiling. Two stone shields set into the chimney breast commemorate the marriage of Dordé de Béduer to Jeanne de Balzac of Montal in 1457. The hall is dominated by a huge 19th-century Venetian chandelier.

The front of the building has a beautiful embossed entrance (the shields at the top are 19th-century) showing the slots which formerly carried the chains to let down the drawbridge over a dry moat. The façade was classified as a monument historique in 1973.

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Wikipedia