The Château de Beaufort is a ruined

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

located along the upper reaches of the river

Loire The Loire (, also ; ; oc, Léger, ; la, Liger) is the longest river in France and the 171st longest in the world. With a length of , it drains , more than a fifth of France's land, while its average discharge is only half that of the Rhône ...

in France. It is near the village of

Goudet Goudet () is a Communes of France, commune in the Haute-Loire Departments of France, department in south-central France. The village stands on the upper reaches of the river Loire and is overlooked by the Château de Beaufort, built in the 13th ce ...

in the ''

département In the administrative divisions of France, the department (french: département, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level ("territorial collectivity, territorial collectivities"), between the regions of France, admin ...

'' of

Haute-Loire Haute-Loire (; oc, Naut Léger or ''Naut Leir''; English: Upper Loire) is a landlocked department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of south-central France. Named after the Loire River, it is surrounded by the departments of Loire, Ardèche ...

, in the

Auvergne Auvergne (; ; oc, label=Occitan, Auvèrnhe or ) is a former administrative region in central France, comprising the four departments of Allier, Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal and Haute-Loire. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region Auverg ...

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

. It was built in the 13th century and modified in the 15th and 16th centuries. Perched on a rocky headland overhanging the granitic rocks of the

Margeride Margeride (in Auvergnat ) is a mountainous region of France, situated in the Massif Central, inside the ''départements'' of Cantal, Haute-Loire and Lozère. Location In Cantal, its western boundary is the Truyère, and its eastern boundary, in ...

, the fortress is today a ruined shell.

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...

stopped here on his trip documented in ''

Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes ''Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes'' (1879) is one of Robert Louis Stevenson's earliest published works and is considered a pioneering classic of outdoor literature. Background Stevenson was in his late 20s and still dependent on his par ...

'' (1879).

"In this pleasant humour I came down the hill to where Goudet stands in a green end of a valley, with Château Beaufort opposite upon a rocky steep, and the stream, as clear as crystal, lying in a deep pool between them."

History

Built for surveillance and domination of the Loire valley, the castle provides an interesting example of how a 13th-century feudal castle could be adapted to the evolution of military construction, notable with the development of artillery. During the

Hundred Years' War The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a series of armed conflicts between the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England and Kingdom of France, France during the Late Middle Ages. It originated from disputed claims to the French Crown, ...

and the

Wars of Religion A religious war or a war of religion, sometimes also known as a holy war ( la, sanctum bellum), is a war which is primarily caused or justified by differences in religion. In the modern period, there are frequent debates over the extent to wh ...

it was of historical importance but after the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

it fell victim to a gradual abandonment which reduced it to the state of ruin. The site includes an ''enceinte'', partly rebuilt in the 15th century, which surrounded the fortress halfway up the hill. The castle itself was, right from the start, of square plan with a courtyard occupied on the south by a residence. In the 16th century, Antoine de la Tour added a tower in the north-western corner, a large horseshoe-shaped tower in the south-western corner, and other walls, parts of which remain on the north and south sides, the latter with a corner tower. with turn of angle. Inside the ''enceinte'', the vestiges on the ground or hidden provide little help to suggest how the inhabited parts were divided. In the north-east, are remnants of an arched room and a chimney. The 15th-century tower was reinforced internally by a second wall and was pierced with holes for archers and cannons. It has been listed since 1994 as a ''

monument historique ''Monument historique'' () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which National Heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a coll ...

'' by the

French Ministry of Culture The Ministry of Culture (french: Ministère de la Culture) is the ministry of the Government of France in charge of national museums and the . Its goal is to maintain the French identity through the promotion and protection of the arts (visual, ...

References

External links

Chateau Beaufort
includes pictures

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beaufort, Chateau De Ruined castles in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Haute-Loire Monuments historiques of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Robert Louis Stevenson

History

See also

References

External links