Château Moncade, Medieval castle in Orthez, France

Château Moncade is a ruined castle on a hill above Orthez, of which the keep, the tour de Moncade, survives: a square tower of light gray and beige stone rising in one slightly tapering shaft to 33 m. Its top edge carries a projecting row of small arches below a flat roofline; the visible face has, from top to bottom, a small rectangular window with two openings, a narrow arched window with jagged stonework, a smaller arched opening and two slit-like gaps. The keep was pentagonal in plan and had four floors, the upper ones residential, reached by a spiral stair in the spur; the last floor was destroyed in 1820. Around it, the leveled double enceinte traces a circle enclosing a platform of 60 m by 50 m, with the moat and remnants of the curtain wall.

Gaston VII, Viscount of Béarn, began the keep around 1242, funding it with subsidies from Henry III of England, and in 1273 he pledged castle and town. Gaston Phébus remodelled it between 1368 and 1375 with his engineer Sicard de Lordat. It was the seat of the viscountal government until 1464, when Gaston IV moved the capital to Pau; Protestant troops burned it in 1569.

The name Moncade comes from the Catalan Moncada family, to which Gaston VII belonged; he moved the viscountcy's capital from Morlaàs to Orthez. In 1388 the chronicler Froissart was received by Gaston Fébus, who kept his chests in the tower and lodged his guest in the town because the residence was too small. The site is now a public ruin with a model of the castle.

The site sits on a hillside with steep approaches, so visitors should wear good walking shoes and plan time for the climb. Parking is limited on site, and access to certain areas may vary depending on weather conditions.

The keep's top floor was destroyed in 1820, yet the tower still rises 33 metres above the ground. A spiral staircase set in the tower's spur links the two upper floors with the summit platform, and was likely added after the tower itself was finished.