Château des Fortis, Heritage castle in Lisle-sur-Tarn, France.

Château des Fortis is a castle in Lisle-sur-Tarn with four octagonal towers and a quadrangular main building whose exterior walls feature alternating brick and pebble patterns. The central bay of the facade is defined by monumental columns with Doric capitals and an ornate entrance door in neoclassical style.

The Puilaurens family, recorded as owners of houses and vines at the Fortis hamlet from 1646, built the château in the second half of the 19th century. Antoine Puilaurens (1806-1884) began it and died before completion; his heir Auguste had the old house and wine store demolished in 1890. The estate then passed through several owners, including Gaillac wine merchants, before a foreign businessman bought it in late 2020.

The ground floor preserves wine-making features: barrel-vaulted and groin-vaulted cellars, a vast chai with remnants of the futaille, masonry vats to the west, and a south room with red-rendered walls adorned with white fleurs-de-lis. Upstairs, the first-floor rooms carry trompe-l'œil imitation of gypserie decoration, while the south salon has a ceiling of real gypserie and the dining room wood panelling and a chevron parquet.

The château des Fortis is a private property and cannot be visited; the grounds, the large basin to the south and the small wood are not open to the public. The building can be seen from the surrounding roads of Lisle-sur-Tarn, where its brick facades, four octagonal turrets and semicircular pediment stand out. The farm to the north-east, built in the same style, belongs to the same estate.

The ground floor was built solely for winemaking, with barrel-vaulted and groin-vaulted cellars, a large chai in the centre, masonry vats to the west and a room with red walls and white fleurs-de-lis to the south. The reception rooms above are reached by a central corridor running the length of the building.