The Château de Castelnou (also called the Château Vicomtal) is a medieval
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 ...
in the ''
commune'' of Castelnou (Catalan: Castellnou dels Aspres) in the French ''
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
Pyrénées-Orientales
Pyrénées-Orientales (; ; ; ), also known as Northern Catalonia, is a departments of France, department of the Regions of France, region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Southern France, adjacent to the northern Spain, Spanish ...
.
The village of Castelnou takes its name from the castle. The
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
''castellum novum'' became in
Catalan ''castell nou'', the "new castle".
History
From 990, the castle served as the administrative and military capital of the Viscount of
Vallespir
Vallespir (; ) is a historical Catalan comarca in Northern Catalonia, part of the French department of Pyrénées-Orientales.
Geography
The capital of the comarca is Ceret, and it borders the comarques of Conflent, Rosselló, Alt Empordà ...
. Its irregular pentagonal plan follows the rocky outcrop on which it was built, this elevated position providing defence against enemy attacks.
The castle was taken by the troops of
James II of Majorca
James II () (31 May 1243 – 29 May 1311) was King of Majorca and Lord of Montpellier from 1276 until his death. He was the second son of James I of Aragon and his wife, Violant, daughter of Andrew II of Hungary. In 1279, by the Treaty of Perp ...
en 1286, and again in 1483. Largely demolished in 1559, it was no longer restored or inhabited and deteriorated throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. At the time of the
French Revolution it became the property of the ''commune''. It was sold to Viscount Satgé in 1875 and, by 1900, had become again an elegant and habitable fortress. It was acquired in 1946 by Charles-Emmanuel Brousse who was married to
Amy Elizabeth Thorpe, a famed spy who worked for Britain's
MI6
The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. Ravaged by a fire that killed Brousse in 1972, in 1987 it was sold and has since been restored.
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 ...
External links
Château de Castelnou- official site
Official Castelnou website
* ''Parts of this article were originally translated from the French Wikipedia article
:fr:Castelnou and specifically fro
this version'
Castles in Pyrénées-Orientales
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