France · Ruin
Tours de Merle
The Tours de Merle are the dispersed medieval remains of a feudal fortress complex in Saint-Geniez-ô-Merle, Corrèze, comprising multiple towers and associated buildings. At its height in the 14th century the site encompassed seven small castles, two chapels and a village clustered on a defensive ridge. Today the site survives as ruined stone towers, curtain walls and foundations and is a protected historic monument.
Its prime
1350
Today
Ruin
As it stood in 1350
What Tours de Merle looked like in its prime.
A cluster of seven distinct stone castle towers and small keeps linked by low curtain walls and scattered foundations along a wooded limestone ridge above a small village; walls are roughly coursed local grey-brown stone. At prime, towers rise with crenellated parapets and wooden roofed service buildings in the courtyards, two small chapel buildings with steep tiled roofs, narrow slit windows and a compact citadel core; many connecting structures are roofed and intact.
Its story
The story of Tours de Merle.
The Tours de Merle are the ruins of a feudal fortress of the twelfth to fifteenth centuries at Saint-Geniez-ô-Merle in the Corrèze. At its height in the fourteenth century, Merle comprised seven small castles, two chapels and a village clustered on a defensive ridge, owned by seven noblemen of Merle.
During the Hundred Years' War the English took one of the towers and a castle in 1371. In 1574 Calvinists seized the citadel and installed a garrison, and were driven out two years later by the co-lords — who then abandoned the fortress themselves, preferring homes more pleasant and more accessible. The ruined stone towers, curtain walls and foundations have been protected as a historic monument since 30 July 1927.
Step inside
7 places to explore in 1350.
The record describes 7 distinct spots at Tours de Merle — including 1 interior: interior of a chapel. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and walk through every one — more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
Create History
Recreate Tours de Merle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1350 — a photoreal walk that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
Recreate this castle →Whose castle
Clans who held Tours de Merle.
The families that held Tours de Merle for a decade or more across its history — follow a name to its clan.
de Merle
In the fourteenth century the site's seven castles were held by seven co-lords of Merle.
