Château d'Excideuil, Castle in Excideuil, Dordogne, France

Château d'Excideuil stands on an oval rock plateau about 150 metres long north to south and half that east to west, in the Dordogne near the Loue valley. Its keep is actually two square towers of the 12th and 13th centuries joined by a high wall, the remains of the viscounts' residence. The seigneurial logis dates from 1582–1587, and its south-west gatehouse with drawbridge, remodelled around 1580 by architect Nicolas Rambourg, is flanked by two decorative turrets.

The site was fortified by the viscounts of Limoges in the 11th and 12th centuries to watch the road from Limoges to Périgueux; a charter of about 1100 records Viscount Adémar III's gift to Uzerche Abbey. Richard the Lionheart's troops failed before the walls in 1182 and 1184, but John Lackland seized the castle in 1199 after Adémar V changed sides, and Gui V recovered it around 1211. In 1582 Henry of Navarre, later Henry IV, sold it for 150,000 livres to François de Pérusse des Cars, who rebuilt it as a Renaissance residence by 1587.

The castle's name comes from the viscounts of Limoges, who held it from the 12th to 14th centuries. In 1613 Louis XIII raised the estate to a marquisate for the Talleyrand family. The seigneurial residence was rebuilt in Renaissance style between 1582 and 1587, and its late-20th-century wing repeats the mullioned windows and the small cylindrical corner turret holding a spiral staircase.

The eastern part with the keep and the seigneurial residence is private property; the rest, owned by the commune of Excideuil, can be visited freely. The southern part with the outbuildings is open all year, while the northern part and the castle chapel open only during the summer holidays and on the Journées du Patrimoine. Access is from the west through a forecourt and a round-arched gate.

Excideuil has one of the rare double keeps: two square towers of the 12th and 13th centuries joined by a high wall, the remains of the viscounts' residence. The castle was listed in its entirety as a monument historique on 11 July 2014, replacing earlier registrations of 1927 and 2013.