Château des Guilhem

En un regard

Le château en bref

Perched above Clermont-l'Hérault, the Château des Guilhem has watched over the Hérault valley and the roads to Bédarieux for more than nine centuries. It was built at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries for the Guilhem lineage, lords of Clermont: an Aimeric de Clermont is mentioned as early as 1128, and the castle appears in 1158 in the cartulary of the Abbey of Gellone. Building work continued until the end of the 13th century. The fortress comprises a curtain wall of medium-sized limestone ashlar, punctuated by eight semicircular towers and dominated by a round keep on a square base, the Tour Guilhem. The seigneurial residence has disappeared, but vaulted and underground halls survive. A refuge for the local population in times of unrest, it held out for four days in 1584 against the siege led by Montmorency, and was then gradually abandoned in the 17th century, which spared it the demolition ordered by Richelieu. Acquired in the 18th century by Guillaume Castanier d'Auriac, sold in lots after the Revolution, then reassembled by the Abbé Saumade in the 19th century, the site now belongs to the commune. Repeatedly consolidated, it is open to the public and serves as a setting for cultural events.