Château de Commarque
CastleHidden Treasure
Château de Commarque, located in Les Eyzies, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, is a medieval landmark built in the Middle Ages. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- Castle
- Period
- Medieval (11th-15th century)
- Location
- Les Eyzies, Nouvelle-Aquitaine
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
A spectacular medieval fortress rising from a limestone cliff in the heart of the Périgord Noir, Commarque is a ghost castle with jagged towers and 14,000-year-old Magdalenian engravings in its basement.
© Wikimedia Commons / Wikipedia
History
At the bottom of a secret valley bordered by the river Beune, Commarque castle stands out as one of the most striking ruins in Périgord. Perched on a rocky spur of limestone, the fortified complex has a silhouette of gutted towers and half-collapsed curtain walls that looks like something out of a medieval fairytale. Yet the building is very real, and its centuries-long history makes it one of the most complete witnesses to feudal society in south-western France. What makes Commarque absolutely unique among the heritage of the Périgord region is the dizzying overlap of civilisations. Beneath the Romanesque foundations of the keep, the cliff itself conceals a shelter decorated with Palaeolithic engravings attributed to the Magdalenian culture, including a particularly remarkable horse in relief. The medieval castle was literally built on top of a prehistoric sanctuary, ignoring - or venerating? - the images that its distant ancestors had carved into the stone. A visit to Commarque is as much a physical experience as an intellectual one. It is reached on foot from a woodland car park, up a shady dirt track that provides a gradual and dramatic arrival. The towers of the main keep, which have been partly restored, can be climbed: from the battlements, the panorama takes in the wooded valley of the Beune, facing the château de Laussel, its neighbour and rival of yesteryear. The rooms uncovered during excavation and consolidation work still reveal their broken vaults, chimneys buried under brambles and corbelled latrines. The natural setting heightens the sense of timeless isolation. Beech and oak woods surround the site, muffling the noise of the modern world. Photographers and illustrators can enjoy the late afternoon light that makes the yellow limestone of the Vézère River glow. Families with children will appreciate the adventurous nature of the site, while archaeology and military architecture enthusiasts could spend a full half-day here.
Architecture
Commarque castle is a example of Perigordian Romanesque and Gothic military architecture, typical of feudal fortresses built in south-west France between the 12th and 14th centuries. The complex is built around a massive rectangular keep, whose light yellow limestone walls are up to two metres thick in places, flanked by circular towers distributed along an irregular curtain wall that follows the contours of the rocky spur. The local stone, a finely grained limestone quarried from the nearby cliffs of the Beune valley, gives the building a beautiful chromatic homogeneity. The architectural originality of Commarque is largely due to its integration into the natural topography: the cliff itself acts as a back wall for several living spaces dug into or set against the rock. Troglodytic shelters, barrel-vaulted cellars and a cave chapel coexist with the high masonry, blurring the boundary between nature and human construction. The openings that have been preserved - loopholes with interior splaying, stone cross windows, archways - bear witness to the different phases of construction and to medieval tactical developments. Corbelled latrines, traces of hoardings (wooden galleries corbelled onto the parapets), the remains of monumental fireplaces in the noble rooms and the ends of ribbed vaults in the castral chapel are all valuable details for understanding the daily life and standing of medieval seigneuries. The restoration work carried out since the 1970s has consolidated the most fragile masonry without attempting to reconstitute the parts that have disappeared, leaving the site with all the emotional power of an authentic ruin.
Related Figures
Famille de Commarque — lignée seigneuriale fondatrice du château aux XIIe-XIIIe siècles, l'une des plus puissantes du Périgord médiévalFamille de Beynac — voisins et alliés, copropriétaires de certaines tours du château à la fin du Moyen ÂgeFamille de Caumont — autre grande maison périgourdine liée à Commarque par alliance et copossession médiévaleHubert de Commarque — propriétaire contemporain, artisan du sauvetage et de la restauration du château à partir des années 1960Artisans magdaléniens anonymes — auteurs des gravures pariétales de l'abri sous la falaise, vers 12 000 av. J.-C.
Map
Coordinates not available for this monument.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Château de Commarque located?
Château de Commarque is located in Les Eyzies, Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, France.
When was Château de Commarque built?
Château de Commarque dates back to a period built in the Middle Ages (11th-15th century).
Is Château de Commarque open to visitors?
Château de Commarque is currently closed to visitors.