Château de Lustrac, Medieval castle in Trentels, France

Château de Lustrac stands at Trentels in Lot-et-Garonne, above the Lot and its mill. Its walls are exposed pale grey and tan rubble masonry, rising in an irregular mass with a tall stone tower on the right and a lower section on the left. The low-pitched roof carries a row of small chimneys, and the small windows are irregularly placed, some with dark wooden shutters, some with white-painted panes.

Foulques de Lustrac built the mill and its barrage on the Lot in 1296, and the castle was raised to control the barrage and protect the mill. In 1372 the Duke of Anjou granted 300 gold francs to Bernard de Lustrac for fortifying the castle and mill. Antoine I de Lustrac gave the castle its present form between the late 15th and mid-16th century. The towers were probably decapitated around the Revolution, and after Joseph Meynot bought the ruin in 1891 it was restored and the towers raised again.

The Lustrac family's wealth came from toll, milling and fishing rights at the mill and barrage on the Lot, which financed their rise among the lords of the Agenais. The inner courtyard gateway carries a stone dated 1651, from the time of Jonathan de Garrisson, who bought the seigneury in 1649.

The castle stands on the right bank of the Lot in the commune of Trentels, facing the hamlet of Lustrac and its mill on the opposite bank in Trémons. It is private property, so visits are limited to the exterior; the building is best seen from the surrounding roads and the riverside paths. The whole site, including the mill, the lock and the village, has been covered by a protection decision since 1982.

Joseph Meynot, a former mayor of Agen, bought the abandoned castle in 1891, not 1914. He had a building erected against the outer facade of the west wing and installed a sawmill in the castle courtyard, an industrial use that ended when the site was sold again in 1963.