Château de Buzet-sur-Baïse, Medieval castle in Buzet-sur-Baïse, France.
The Château de Buzet-sur-Baïse is a pale grey stone building with a steeply pitched, weathered grey roof. Two tall, thick chimneys rise from the left and right ends of the roof, with a smaller chimney on the left slope near the centre. A round tower with a conical roof stands at the right corner, and the facade has small, dark, rectangular windows across two visible levels. An octagonal tower on the south facade houses a spiral staircase.
Sanche de Gascogne, count of Gascony from 1009 to 1032, fortified a residence at Buzet and gave it to the monks of Saint-Pierre de Condom, making him the castle's founder. Two facing castles shared the site until English soldiers burned both in 1293-1294, after which the oldest surviving parts were rebuilt. Bérard d'Albret bought the seigneurie in 1385 for 2,000 gold francs, and Charles IX stayed one night on 1 August 1565.
The castle's name comes from the Gascon lordship held by the Albret family, who bought the seigneury in 1385 for 2,000 gold francs. Inside, painted ceilings on the upper floor carry emblems drawn from the work of the Italian scholar Andrea Alciat, printed in the mid-16th century. The Grossolles made Buzet their main residence after the 1504 marriage of Béatrix de Noaillan and Antoine de Grossolles.
The castle stands in the heart of Buzet-sur-Baïse, in Lot-et-Garonne, Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Visitors approach it on foot through the village streets; the building is partly hidden by trees at its base, so the round corner tower and the tall chimneys are best seen from a short distance. The site is closed for renovation work and managed by the Coopérative des Vignerons de Buzet since 2018.
The castle's oldest sections date from the late 13th or early 14th century, likely because English soldiers burned both castles on the site in 1293–1294. The tower facing the castle is the only remnant of the second castle, and the attack became one of the pretexts for the Guyenne War.
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