Château de Talmont, Medieval fortress in Talmont-Saint-Hilaire, France.

Château de Talmont is a ruined medieval fortress on a hill above Talmont-Saint-Hilaire, built of rough grey and tan stone. A square crenellated tower, once the bell tower of a church dedicated to Saint Peter, stands against the sky and flies a red and yellow flag. Jagged walls with red metal railings along their tops descend toward a lower stone wall with a tiled roof edge and small dark openings.

The first fortifications date from around 1025, when William I of Talmont, called the Bald, had a motte built; around 1050 he raised a stone castle on the site of a ruined church of Saint Peter, keeping its bell tower as the keep. In 1138 Louis VII took and burned the castle. From about 1170 Richard the Lionheart expanded it with a new wall, round towers and a gatehouse, and in 1372 Charles V forced Ysabeau d'Avaugour to submit.

The castle's name comes from the seigneurie of Talmont, a co-seigneurie shared between the sire de Talmont and the Duke of Aquitaine, also Count of Poitou, from the 11th to the late 12th century. Richard the Lionheart, who held rights over the castle, hunted there with his friend Raoul III de Mauléon. The donjon keeps features of an earlier church tower, with a vaulted narthex at ground level and a bell room.

The ruins stand on a hill above Talmont-Saint-Hilaire; the surviving walls, the square tower with its crenellated top and the grassy slope with its flagpoles are reached on foot from the village. Parts of the masonry carry red metal railings along their upper edges, and the ground is uneven, so watch your footing near the broken wall tops.

The keep began as the bell tower of a church dedicated to Saint Peter; its ground-floor narthex and barrel-vaulted bell room survive inside the later square tower. A spiral staircase was added to reach the upper levels. The church itself was removed because its use conflicted with the lords' defensive aims, reportedly under Pépin, grandson of William the Bald, who was excommunicated for it.