The Château d'Agonac is a former
castle
A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...
, converted into a
château
A château (, ; plural: châteaux) is a manor house, or palace, or residence of the lord of the manor, or a fine country house of nobility or gentry, with or without fortifications, originally, and still most frequently, in French-speaking re ...
, in the ''
commune'' of
Agonac
Agonac () is a Communes of France, commune in the Dordogne Departments of France, department in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France. It is situated on the small river Beauronne (Chancelade), Beauronne, north of Périgueux. Agonac station h ...
in the
Dordogne
Dordogne ( , or ; ; ) is a large rural departments of France, department in south west France, with its Prefectures in France, prefecture in Périgueux. Located in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region roughly half-way between the Loire Valley and ...
''
département
In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...
'' of France.
History
The early fort, ''Castrum Agoniacum'', residence of the Bishops of Périgueux, was erected around 980 by Bishop Frotaire de Gourdon
[ to defend Périgueux from the Normans.][Guy Penaud, ''Dictionnaire des châteaux du Périgord'', p. 12, éditions Sud Ouest, 1996, ]
The oldest parts of the present château are the remains of the ''enceinte
Enceinte (from Latin ''incinctus'' "girdled, surrounded") is a French term that refers to the "main defensive enclosure of a fortification". For a castle, this is the main defensive line of wall towers and curtain walls enclosing the positio ...
'' and the keep
A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residen ...
, which date from the 12th century, and the chapel from the 13th. The other buildings were modified between the 16th and 19th centuries.[
]
See also
*List of castles in France
This is a list of castles in France, arranged by Regions of France, region and Departments of France, department.
;Notes:
# The French word ''château'' has a wider meaning than the English ''castle'': it includes architectural entities that are p ...
References
External links
*
Castles in Nouvelle-Aquitaine
Châteaux in Dordogne
{{France-castle-stub