Château

English translation

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History

The "feudum of Leoco" is cited in 1110; the "castrum" in 1215. The castle was taken by the Leaguers in 1589. A fire ravaged it in 1791. It previously consisted of five towers, four at the angles of a vast rectangle, the fifth serving as a keep in the centre of a large side. Today only the south-west half of the rectangle and three towers including the keep remain. The other part was remodeled, transformed into agricultural outbuildings, but important remains of the former dependencies survive. This fortified ensemble, which occupies a mound, commanded the road from Carcassonne to Saint-Hilaire at a point where the valley is very narrow. The keep rises on a base of glacis. Traces of timber hoarding are still visible on the upper parts. The gun-ports and the barred window are probable remodelings of the 16th and 17th centuries. This tower could be older than the other buildings and have been preserved, with some curtain walls, in the new construction of the 14th century. Inside, a vaulted hall is widely lit by the barred window. The grille is a work of ironwork with two series of oblique bars. The large square tower to the south was supposed, according to tradition, to comprise four vaulted storeys of which only the ground-floor hall survives, vaulted with groined vault, and two storeys under roof structure. This ground-floor hall is the room called "of the Weeping Woman" in which sheltered, for 43 years, Magdeleine de Siran, widow of Benjamin de Levis-Montmaur, murdered in 1653. The storeys are served by a spiral staircase, which became a service staircase after the construction of the grand staircase. The square tower to the north is altered by various remodelings. Its ground-floor hall is vaulted on powerful ribs whose keystone has been sculpted with the arms of Dax. The apartments of the storeys, as much of the towers as of the intermediate buildings, were redistributed during the 19th century. All this part of the castle can be attributed to the archbishop of Narbonne, Pierre de la Jugie, between 1372 and 1375. The embellishment of the castle is attributed to Arnaud Dax, merchant of Carcassonne who purchased the lordship in 1457. The grand staircase is the principal feature of this adaptation of the old feudal dwelling. An octagonal tower engaged in the angle opens through five superimposed openings. The great hall which occupies the south wing, between the grand staircase and the square tower of the Weeping Woman, was at the same period adorned with a large monumental fireplace. The jambs are small columns with flamboyant bases similar to those of the windows of the staircase.