CastleNarbonne (11)

Price :

$4,787,500

USD

Euro € EURAmerican Dollar ($ USD)British Pound (£ GBP)

Surface1,950 m²bedrooms20 bathrooms13 land350 ha

A 19th-17th century chateau and country house measuring 1 950 m², a Romanesque chapel, gites and outbuildings and a lake set in 350 hectares of land. Between 800 and 1820, three castles were built on the site, one of which, a feudal castle on a rocky spur, had two fortified walls. Its ruins give an idea of the strategic importance of the site. The second was built between the 15th and 17th centuries and the third during the Restoration. Over more than 1000 years, the estate has gone through three stages: from aprision, it became a secular seigneury from 795 to 1802, until the fiefdom was broken up during the French Revolution, when the turbulence of the period, during which land was drawn up and redistributed, turned it into the private estate it is today. Nowadays it covers more than 350 hectares: 40 hectares of crops, 3.4 hectares of vines and 3 hectares of olive trees, 60 hectares of woods and moorlands surrounding a 1.7 hectare lake on the other side of the main road, and 250 hectares of scrubland behind the 19th century building. The buildings - the country house, the Romanesque church with its square apse, set against the 19th-century chateau, and several outbuildings - all topped with terracotta tiles, are vestiges of the estate’s rich past. Shortly after leaving the village on the road that goes through typically hilly wine-growing countryside, a gate and a long driveway lined with Mediterranean plants leads up to the chateau, which overlooks the scrublands and vines as far as the eye can see. Sheltered by the rocky buttresses where the ruins of the original fortress still remain, it is flanked by the church and, to the rear, two sheepfolds converted into gites with a swimming pool. The building's north-east-facing facade is flanked by a vast gravelled forecourt, planted with flowers in the shade of ancient lime trees. At its foot, three lawned terraces slope gently downwards, broken up by a cypress avenue leading to the country house via a stone gateway topped with Medici vases. The walled grounds feature a large swimming pool that overlooks the terraces. Finally, the country house, in a U-shape on the edge of the estate and surrounded by various outbuildings - a former wine storehouses, forge, stables and other buildings - has its own private swimming pool.