The VMF Association's mission is to defend and safeguard the built and landscape heritage, protected or not, and to raise awareness among the younger generations.
As such, it wishes to promote the mission of general interest fulfilled by the owners who, by living, restoring and bringing this site to life, help to preserve the heritage and participate in the quality of our living environment.
This prize, awarded by the VMF, rewards exceptional restorations in progress or about to be completed. In 2018, it awarded its Grand Prix to the Château de Fénelon.
The Château de Fénelon
Built in the 11th century by the de Fénelon family, the first castrum was, until the middle of the 13th century, a fortress and one of the last Cathar refuges in Périgord-Quercy.
In 1360, the captain-brigand Bertrucat d'Albret delivered the castle to the English. Then this one is taken again by the army of the Duke of Anjou in 1375 before being then fortified during the Wars of Religion.
The last architectural modifications date from the 17th century.
On August 6, 1651 François de Salignac de La Mothe-Fénelon, future tutor of the grandsons of Louis XIV, academician, archbishop of Cambrai, and precursor of the philosophers of the Enlightenment, was born within these walls.
Transformed into a farm after the Revolution, the site was saved from abandonment in 1859.
After the restorations of the roof of the tower called "Jam Tower" in 2008, and the rump of the keep in 2012, it remains to urgently program the repair of the south facade of the castle, planned in three stages, the first of which starts in 2018 corresponding to the roofs of the south facade, west side of the castle.
The building was classified as a Historic Monument in 1962 and has been the property of Mr. Jean-Luc Delautre since 1990, the year it was opened to the public.
The visit
Behind three fortified enclosures, the castle today looks as it did in the past with its impressive slate roof in the Sarladaise style.
After having walked through the protected lice and passed under two castelets of the guards, the visitor will discover successively :
The vaulted cellar, carved into the rock, presenting its collection of walnut oil jugs.
The main courtyard and its exceptional 90-metre deep well!
The medieval kitchens and all its utensils from the 15th to the 19th century.
The large Renaissance room and its tapestries.
The small study with walnut wood panelling.
The Louis XIII style bedroom where François de Salignac de la Mothe Fénelon was born.
The antechamber and its Louis XIV style furniture.
A showcase dedicated to the hunting of wolves.
The Louis XVI room and its magnificent gilded wood seats.
The Premier Empire room and its Napoleonic souvenirs.
The mysterious cabinet of curiosities and its siren of the China seas.
The 15th century frame of the Jam Tower.
The impressive arms room with more than 300 rooms from the 15th to the 18th century.
The chapel where many children of the de Salignac family were baptized.
The Barracks where the model of the castle is located and which sheltered a regiment of Men-at-Arms under Louis XIV at the time of the Wars of Religion.
Castle of Fénelon
24370 Sainte-Mondane
Tel: 05 53 29 81 45
http://www.chateau-fenelon.fr/
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