Château de Turenne

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Château de Turenne, first mentioned in 767 (when it was taken by Pepin the Short), was established on its present site by the Comborn family at the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries. Seat of a quasi-sovereign viscountcy – which minted its own coinage and raised its own armies without direct royal taxation – it became in the 14th century one of the largest fiefs in France, extending over 111 parishes and some 100,000 inhabitants straddling Limousin, Périgord and Quercy. On 8 May 1738, the last viscount sold the viscountcy to Louis XV to settle his gambling debts; the king promptly had the fortress demolished, as a symbol deemed threatening to absolute royal power, leaving only the Caesar Tower and a reduced keep standing. Since 2023, the de Broglie family, which counts three marshals among its ancestors, has reopened the castle to the public, restoring rooms and terraces that had until then been closed.