Naucaze Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

In the commune of Saint-Julien-de-Toursac, in the Châtaigneraie cantalienne, the ruins of the Naucaze fortified castle – sometimes spelt Naucase – can be seen from the départementale road 133. The site grew up around a primitive keep attributed to the twelfth or thirteenth centuries. In the fifteenth century, a residential building flanked by round towers was added to enlarge it; in 1637, a new range linking the upper courtyard to the lower courtyard was built, and then, in 1663, a barn-stable, notable for its continuous barrel vault with inclined lunettes, was erected. Looted and burned in 1792, the castle subsequently fell into ruin. An initial listing of the ruins, pronounced in 1977, having been annulled, the whole – castle, enclosure, outbuildings, barn-stable and buried remains – was listed in its entirety as a monument historique on 19 May 2003. Owned by the communauté de communes, it is subject to restoration work and occasional guided visits.