Château de Beauchastel

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Château de Beauchastel overlooked the floodplain of the Eyrieux, about two kilometres from its confluence with the Rhône, in the commune of the same name in Ardèche. Probably built in the 12th century, it consisted of a square keep with walls less than one metre thick, whose floors, lacking an internal staircase, were reached by a removable wooden ladder. The castrum was held successively by the Bishop of Valence, who granted its usufruct to Odon de Retourtour in 1179, and then by the Poitiers, Bastet and Retourtour families in the 13th and 14th centuries. Already recorded as ruined in 1592, the site was still described as such at the beginning of the 17th century. Today only the remains of the keep and the line of the former curtain wall survive, the latter corresponding to the upper part of the present-day village. The site is privately owned and not open to visitors.