La Roque Castle
The privately inhabited castle La Roque stands high above the D 25, three kilometers northeast of the village of Saint-Cyprien in the area of the municipality of Meyrals in the Dordogne department of the French Périgord .
The structure takes its name because in the hilly terrain it appears to be part of the rock on which it was built. A picturesque jumble of towers with pointed roofs competes with the towering residential wing. This “eagle's nest” was built on the fortifications between the 14th and 17th centuries, initially by a younger branch of the Beynac family, and later by the Beaumont family. The chapel of the castle is painted with frescoes from the 15th and 16th centuries. Depicted are members of the Beaumont family kneeling in front of their patron saint Francis of Assisi , while God the Father is enthroned above everything in the vault. Here Christophe de Beaumont , Archbishop of Paris and staunch opponent of Jean-Jacques Rousseau , was forced by Lettre de cachet in August 1754 to retire into honorable exile .
literature
- Jean Secret: Chateaux en Périgord. Jacques Delmas et Cie., Paris 1955.
Coordinates: 44 ° 52 '58 " N , 1 ° 3' 50" E