Château de Montaigut, Medieval castle in Gissac, France

Château de Montaigut is a castle on a rocky outcrop above the Dourdou de Camarès valley in Gissac, Aveyron. Its rough tan and ochre stone walls include a tall block with a sloped roofline, a crenellated tower with a round-arched gateway, and a lower ruined wall. Inside are vaulted rooms, a spiral staircase, a cellar with a rock-cut cistern, a guard room and prison, bedrooms and kitchens.

A watchtower defending Saint-Affrique against attacks from the south stood here from the 10th century, built over an early medieval necropolis. In the 15th century the Blanc family enlarged it into their residence. In the 17th century the bourgeois de Rouvelet plastered the interior walls, dismantled the defences and added a lauze roof; after 1920 it was abandoned and quarried for stone. The Amis du château bought it in 1968 and completed its rescue in 1989; it was listed in 1987.

The castle is now a permanent centre for cultural events, run by the Amis du château de Montaigut, the association that took ownership in 1968 and carried out the restoration completed in 1989. It also belongs to the Route des Seigneurs du Rouergue, a tourist itinerary linking 23 castles of Aveyron.

Access is by a path running alongside the castle and its enclosure wall; the courtyard holds the 15th-century stables and a forge added in the 19th century. The castle stands above the Dourdou de Camarès valley in the commune of Gissac, and it is one of 23 Aveyron castles grouped on the Route des Seigneurs du Rouergue.

The cistern is cut directly into the rock in the cellar, not built of masonry. The castle stands on a rocky spur above the Dourdou de Camarès valley and was first a watchtower defending Saint-Affrique from southern attacks. It is one of 23 Aveyron castles on the Route des Seigneurs du Rouergue.