Château de Monbalen

En un regard

Le château en bref

Le château de Monbalen is a complex of buildings dating from the Middle Ages, originally built for defence and later used as a residence, located in the commune of Monbalen, in the Lot-et-Garonne department and the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region. The château lies in ‘Le bourg’, now a locality (lieu-dit) of the village, whose administrative centre was moved to the site of the former parish of Gelsac at the time of the Revolution. In the article that follows, references to Monbalen relate to this former village centre and not to the new village built around the church of the former Gelsac. The earliest traces of defensive construction date from the 13th century, whereas most of the present-day structure is known to derive from alterations made in the 18th century. Several architectural layers overlap and reflect the successive functions of the site. The whole comprises a large house, a chapel formerly a watchtower and then a dovecote, a barn, and a farm building now converted into dwellings, as well as a 20th-century shed used for processing prunes. On the château's lands, situated downhill, a spring is the source of the Masse, a tributary of the Garonne, which it joins north of the town of Agen.