Château de Montbrun, Medieval castle in Dournazac, France

The Château de Montbrun is a rectangular stone castle flanked by round corner towers, with a tall Romanesque square keep crowned by machicolations. The 15th-century logis has large mullioned windows, and the whole complex is surrounded by a moat and ponds. A grassy terrace wall runs along the water's edge.

The castle, then called Trados, was built in 1179 by Aymeric Bruni on his return from the Second Crusade. The Brun family, known as Montbrun after 1366, held it until 1516. Occupied by the English during the Hundred Years' War, it was retaken by the French in 1353, then partially destroyed. Between 1433 and 1438 square towers were replaced by round ones, giving the castle its present form.

The castle reflects how French nobility lived, with residential spaces built directly alongside defensive structures. You can still see today how this dual purpose shaped the layout of the buildings.

The castle stands in a deep valley within the Périgord Limousin regional natural park, reached from Dournazac in Haute-Vienne. The moat and ponds of the 12th to 14th centuries still hold water at the foot of the walls, and the grassy bank beside them can be soft after rain. The site is private and inhabited, so visits are arranged rather than free.

Montbrun appears in the opening of the film Les Visiteurs, on a wooded hill, then distorted by Godefroy's vision under the potion's effect. It is also one of four Limousin sites reproduced at France Miniature park near Paris.