France · Restored
Castle of Cognac
Château de Cognac
Château de Cognac (also called Château de Valois or Château François) is a medieval and Renaissance castle in Cognac, France, rebuilt repeatedly from the 10th century onward. Substantial works in the 15th–16th centuries produced the long riverside façade associated with Francis I. The site later housed commercial cellars but retains its medieval towers and riverside range.
Its prime
1517
Today
Restored
As it stood in 1517
What Castle of Cognac looked like in its prime.
A compact complex of pale limestone ashlar sits against the town and the Charente bank, dominated by a broad cylindrical tower capped with a steep conical clay-tile roof and backed by a taller rectangular keep of rougher masonry. A continuous stone curtain and a long, regular riverside façade with tall vertical windows link the towers; rooflines are low and tiled. Masonry shows coursed blocks and visible patching but the roofs and walls are complete at prime.
Its story
The story of Castle of Cognac.
The Villebois Fort to the Stone Castle, c.950–c.1200
Fortifications at Cognac began around 950, when Hélie de Villebois, first lord of Cognac, built a fort on the site; by around 1000 his successors Itier and Arnaud de Villebois had settled there and founded the dynasty that held it. A small town grew up around the fort and the neighbouring priory of Saint-Léger, built from 1031 by Benedictine monks. Around 1200 the counts of Angoulême, the Taillefer family, rebuilt the castle in stone on the bank of the Charente, facing the town's docks and walls.
Falcombridge, Lusignan and the Black Prince, c.1200–1370
The lordship passed by the marriage of Amélie de Jarnac, heiress of Cognac, to Philippe de Falcombridge, an illegitimate son of Richard I of England; Philippe sold it to King John of England. After John's death in 1216 his widow Isabella, heiress of Angoulême, reasserted her rights over Cognac and enfeoffed her new husband, Hugh X of Lusignan, who took the castle despite threats that included excommunication by Pope Honorius III. Their son Guy de Lusignan succeeded them and fortified the town further during the 13th century.
Philip IV of France attached the lordship of Cognac to the French crown. Between 1366 and 1370 the castle, together with Angoulême, served as the main residence of Edward, Prince of Aquitaine and Wales, son of Edward III of England.
War, Captivity and the Valois Revival, 1370s–1517
During the Hundred Years' War the castle changed hands through sieges and treaties. John, Count of Angoulême, released after 33 years' captivity in England, found it abandoned and ruinous; rebuilding began in 1450.
His son Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Charles's wife Louise of Savoy made Cognac an intellectual and artistic centre; their son, the future Francis I of France, was born there in 1494 and, as king, built the long facade facing the river in 1517.
Decline to the Otard Cellars, 17th Century–1925
Lack of maintenance left the castle ruinous through the late 17th and 18th centuries; between 1756 and 1757 it held foreign prisoners during the Seven Years' War, who left their graffiti behind. Its owner Charles, Count of Artois — later Charles X — sold some of its buildings in 1772 to pay for repairs.
After the Revolution the castle was put up for sale as national property earmarked for demolition, but in 1795 it was bought by the brandy traders Otard and Dupuy, who installed their cellars there. Renovations during the 19th century destroyed some sections, though the Otard company also carried out significant conservation and restoration work. The castle was listed as a monument historique in 1925. What survives is largely the Valois-era building, and it is open to visitors today.
Step inside
6 places to explore in 1517.
The record describes 6 distinct spots at Castle of Cognac, including 1 interior: underground cellars and vaults. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
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Clans who held Castle of Cognac.
The families that held Castle of Cognac for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Villebois
Lords of Cognac from c.950, when Hélie de Villebois built the first fort; Itier and Arnaud de Villebois founded their dynasty on the site around 1000.
Lusignan
Taken by Hugh X of Lusignan after 1216; the Lusignans extended the castle in the 13th century.
Angoulême
Residence of the Counts of Angoulême, Count John rebuilt from 1450, and his grandson Francis I added the river facade in 1517.
