Château de Goulens

English translation

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History

Established on a line of defence connecting the Garonne to the Pyrenees, the castle would have belonged either to the lords of Carboneau, or to the order of the abbey of Fontevrault, or to both successively. The building consists of a rectangular main dwelling flanked to the south by two large cylindrical towers and to the north by an octagonal tower containing a spiral staircase. The three towers were decapitated at the time of the Revolution. Two of these towers were rebuilt in 1878, during the major restoration carried out by Alaux, disciple of Viollet-le-Duc. The north façade was not retouched. Outbuildings are established to the north and determine an interior courtyard. On the west buildings of these outbuildings, an old defensive door, furnished with a bretèche, was transformed into a timbered dovecot. Inside, a vestibule opens onto two large rooms, the dining room with a coffered ceiling and the salon with its chimney and its walls covered above the panelling with large paintings on canvas representing hunting scenes in a medieval style. This salon is followed by another small salon housed in the round tower and decorated with a painted stone chimney from which sculpted cats hang in high relief. On the first floor, two rooms are hung with Aubusson tapestries (end 17th, beginning 18th century) representing rustic scenes.