Fort de Mareugheol

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Fort de Mareugheol is a village fort built in the 14th century during the Hundred Years' War to protect the population from the depredations of bands of routiers. It forms a nearly quadrilateral enclosure flanked by four round basalt towers, sheltering at its centre the Romanesque church of Saint-Victor-et-Sainte-Couronne, a dependency of a Benedictine priory, and at that time it contained some sixty dwellings. The main entrance, on the south side, opens through a segmental-arched gateway built of basalt rubble stone, surmounted by grooves that may have held a drawbridge; a partially preserved wall-walk and narrow vaulted passages complete the defensive system. According to the historian Gabriel Fournier, the fort may originally have protected a larger parish territory, including the neighbouring village of Villeneuve. Very little altered since, the ensemble – now largely deserted except for a few façades facing south and east – is a well-preserved example of a collective village refuge organised around its church.