Castle Blanquefort is located on the eponymous town, in Gironde, on the left bank of the Garonne, in the northern suburbs of Bordeaux.
This fortress was built from the eleventh century on the foundations of a mound already occupied in the Bronze Age and then by the Romans, as attested archaeological excavations.
Controlling the Médoc road, the castle lord allows Blanquefort to collect taxes and secures Bordeaux in an advanced enemy coming from the sea by the Gironde estuary. Thus in the thirteenth century, the Blanquefort family proves one of the most powerful in the region. But without an heir, the fortress was acquired in 1254 by the kings of England became the dukes of Aquitaine. The Black Prince, eldest son of the son of King Edward III of England in fact one of his haunts the beginning of the Hundred Years War.
While other lords succeed as owners after English kings, fortress remains loyal to the British crown until 1453, and in 1476, Gaillard Durfort covers his rights and his field after swearing allegiance to the king of France.
The imposing castle loses its luster after the Wars of Religion and the Fronde: Mazarin did indeed shave aliasing fortifications and drain the marshes that constituted a true natural defense. A fire causes further damage to the seventeenth century and the building is already almost abandoned when the revolution comes. The site is then sold and became a stone quarry.
From this vast past with a long enclosure of 180 m, barbicans of dungeons, barracks can house dozens of soldiers and a redesigned main building and modernized to son for centuries, it remains that the remains. As the foundation for a tower of 18 m by 10, which was flanked by six round towers.
Historical Monument in 1862, the castle is now the center of an agricultural area and set off by an association.
Visit all year round by appointment only. Information +33 5 56 57 19 42.
