Château de Monbazillac

Castle Monbazillac is centrally located in the wine region near the village of Montbazillac seven kilometers south of Bergerac in the Dordogne département of French Périgord.

The 1550 by Francois d' Aydie and his wife Francoise de Salignac started and finally completed by Charles d' Aydie and Jeanne de Bourdeille Castle Monbazillac is since 1960 owned by the vintners association of Monbazillac and lies with its four -acre park in the middle the vineyards. It survived largely intact both the religious wars and the time of the Fronde. The moat, the massive towers and leading to the whole castle with battlements and loopholes machicolated give the building its medieval character. However, the large windows and the representative stairway point to the falling into the time change of epoch in the Renaissance style.

In the Grande Salle of the castle monumental Renaissance fireplace as well as furnishings and tapestries dating from the 17th century. On the first floor is furnished in Louis XIII-style bedroom of the Vicomtesse de Monbazillac. In several housed in the Palace Museum illustrative material is issued: Furniture from the Périgord, seals and old maps, medals, drawings of a caricaturist of the Belle Époque, and a historical account of Protestantism in Bergerac ( Bergerac Monbazillac supported as active the Reformation ).

In the cellar there is a wine museum with equipment for wine production and a collection of bottles from the 18th and 19th centuries. The vineyard, which supplies the most famous wine of the region, has a size of approximately 3,000 hectares and was created by monks in the 11th century. In the 17th century the estate benefited from the strong rise in exports to Holland. As for the very large since the Middle Ages awareness of the tiny village Monbazillac and its wine, so most travel guide strive an anecdote from the papal court in Avignon. A delegation of the then major Bergerac made ​​representations to the pope a petition. As the Holy Father could not do anything with the name of the town, declared him a confidant that Bergerac lies with Monbazillac. This name was the Pope as a wine connoisseur once a term.