Château de Combret, castle located in Nauviale

Château de Combret is a castle built from red sandstone in the small village of Nauviale, Occitanie. The structure features thick walls and small windows designed for protection and heat retention, with interior spaces showing traces of old fireplaces and wooden beams from earlier centuries.

The castle dates from the 13th century, when its elongated main dwelling and square tower were built; it belonged to the lords of Beaucaire, who also held another castle, now in ruins, in the same commune. In the early 17th century it was converted into a country house suited to farming, notably winegrowing. In December 2021 the dwelling with its large salon and its ramp-on-ramp staircase, the great tower and the enclosing wall were inscribed as monuments historiques.

The castle stands in the hamlet of Combret, on a slope of the Créneau south of Nauviale; a perimeter wall separates the grounds from the village on the south and the church on the east. The interior is not open to the public, so visits are limited to the exterior and the grounds.

The staircase with its ramp-on-ramp design holds a series of stained-glass windows made by Laurent Théotime Lachaize, a glass painter from Rodez. The castle stands in the village of Combret, not in the Aveyron commune of the same name, but on a slope of the Créneau south of Nauviale.