The castle of Castelnau-Bretenoux

Mentioned from the 12th century, the castle of Castelnau-Bretenoux dominates the surrounding countryside from its rocky spur. Over the centuries, the castle was enlarged and transformed and then almost completely destroyed by a fire of criminal origins in 1851. In 1896, it was purchased by Jean Mouliérat, a tenor at the Paris Opéra-Comique and an art collector. He spent thirty years of his life restoring the castle and saving it from ruin. The richness of the collections assembled on the first floor of a wing of the castle adds to the interest and majesty of this remarkable example of castle architecture dating from the 13th to 17th centuries.

The « Itinéraires » series, designed as a guide for cultural tourism, invites the visitor to discover the highroads and byways of France's national heritage.