Manoir de Pech Godou

English translation

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History

The word "Godou" would be a distortion of "Godame", the name by which the English were designated formerly. Pech Godou would thus mean "hill of the English". From the 12th century, a fort surveyed the valley of the Nauze. During the Hundred Years' War, the English had to occupy it. In 1468, the place belonged to Pierre de Commarque, lord of Pech Godou. In the time of the Reformation, it was in the hands of the Protestants for, in 1577, its lord, Annet de Commarque received a commission from the king of Navarre to seize the abbey of Saint-Avit-Senieur. ££The building of the 12th century consisted of a square keep with two storeys. In the 14th century, there was erected against the west face of the keep, a main dwelling of one level above ground floor whose opening was on the north by a pointed arch door with large voussoirs. A round staircase tower was then erected at the junction of the two buildings and crowned with machicolations. A turret was established on the south-east angle of the keep. In the 16th century, the whole was lit by large openings and a door was opened in the tower, under an ogee arch. In the 19th century, an interior court was formed in front of the dwelling by erecting, against the north face of the keep, a ground floor covered in the Mansart style. The west face, in the 14th century, partly ruined, was extended by a building for use as outbuildings. Others, now ruined, completed the whole.