Château Lagorce, Medieval castle in Haux, France

Château Lagorce stands in the commune of Haux in Gironde, a former castle converted into a residence. Its oldest tower has walls 1.2 metres thick, and an 18th-century document records that the château originally had a moat. A long retaining wall of pale, irregular stone blocks capped with flat stones runs above dark water, with a cream-coloured building with a steep slate-grey roof and a pointed spire rising behind the trees.

Château Lagorce in Haux began as a fortified castle; an 18th-century document records that it originally had a moat. Its oldest tower has walls 1.2 metres thick, defences used through feudal wars in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, when the residence was partly destroyed. In 1636 Menaud de Maonaudon and Marguerite de Cursol carried out major works, and their allied coats of arms survive on a keystone.

The name Lagorce comes from the "Great Gorce" rights that Bonnaventure de Faugeres claimed against Estienne Dumenilh de Faugeres, settled in June 1599 when Dumenilh paid him 16,500 pounds. A keystone carved as a coat of arms joining the Montaudon and Cursol families marks the work of Menaud de Maonaudon and Marguerite de Cursol after 1636. Since 2003 the Holmes family has run a wedding venue here, shown in the series Escape to the Chateau DIY.

The château stands in the commune of Haux, south of Bordeaux, and is a private residence run as a wedding venue, so visits depend on the owners' arrangements rather than fixed opening hours. The Holmes family, who bought it in 2003, restored the interior; the building appears in the television series Escape to the Chateau DIY and in the owners' YouTube series Bordeaux Life.

The oldest tower has walls 1.2 metres thick, and an 18th-century document records that the château originally had a moat; both helped it withstand the feudal wars of the 14th to 16th centuries, when the residence was partly destroyed. A keystone carved with the combined Montaudon and Cursol coats of arms marks the 1636 works of Menaud de Maonaudon and Marguerite de Cursol.