Château de Castelnau-Bretenoux

This castle stands on the edge of a rocky plateau which here forms a spur due to a natural fault in the bedrock. Overlooking the area known as the four rivers, it was the seat of an important barony held by the Castelnau de Bretenoux family, descended from the local Carolingian aristocracy, already the possessors of a fortified residence in this area in the 11th C. The castle took on its definitive appearance in the course of the 14th and 15th C. The Clermont-Lodève family, who inherited the barony in 1530, undertook important work to embellish the austere castle in the mid-17th C. This castle is one of the finest examples of the military architecture of the Middle Ages.