00:00Less than an hour from our campsite a still defined fortress has watched over the Dordogne
00:26valley for 800 years.
00:46At our destination we receive expert history lessons.
00:50Hello, my name is Christine and I am a guide at the Castelnau castle.
00:55Welcome to this 12th century fortress which was an actress and witness to many wars
01:02in the Middle Ages and during the wars of religion.
01:05I will guide you through the centuries to explain to you everything that happened here
01:12during more than 800 years.
01:26The castle that we see in front of us is not the very first castle of Castelnau.
01:44This castle, which was founded in the 12th century, was attacked and destroyed by Simon
01:50de Montfort at the head of the crusade against the Cathars.
01:53The dungeon that you see in front of you and this wall that protects it dates from the
01:59middle of the 13th century, it is the oldest part of the castle.
02:04We have a dungeon that has been watching us for about 800 years.
02:07In the 14th century, the castle will have to be fortified to prepare for the Hundred Years' War,
02:17this conflict that opposes the Kingdom of France to the Kingdom of England.
02:20The lord of this castle took the part of the English while the castle of Benac in front
02:27took the part of the French.
02:29So for more than a hundred years, the two stone monsters will face each other and have to settle
02:37their accounts at the cost of negotiation, but also of siege.
02:45In 1442, the King of France had enough of this stronghold belonging to the English and asked
02:53the French lord, rallied to his banner, to besiege the castle of Castelnau.
02:59An extremely strong event in the history of this castle.
03:02Here the meadows will be covered with tents to be able to put pressure on this fortress
03:10and machines such as those we have rebuilt here in the castle of Castelnau will be mobilized
03:18to be able to put pressure and threaten the castle with boulders of about 100 kg
03:26that could be thrown at more than 200 meters.
03:40The more we plunge into the heart of the fortress, the more difficult it will be to penetrate.
03:45Before being able to enter this castle, it will be necessary to cross ditches,
03:50plunge doors, pass under assaults.
04:09It is a capital thing to resist during a siege, to have a well inside the enclosure.
04:21All castles are not equipped with a well, you have to have water in the basement.
04:26Here they dug 46 meters deep into the rock to reach a source.
04:33But it is also the assurance of being able to resist for many weeks during a siege.
04:39The well is protected by a roof to prevent the enemies from sending carriages
04:47or sometimes, rarely, but it happened, corpses of men.
04:54In the partially restored building, there is a collection of war weapons
04:58which impressively shows the means by which war was fought in the Middle Ages.
05:28And here is the WOW point of view.
05:58Thank you for watching!
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