Having had it built in absentia, when he finally saw it Edward 1 apparently said it was too small for his needs and took himself and his army off down river to found another mighty Castelnau in the Dordogne.

Be that as it may, Castelnau-Bretenoux is stilled claimed as the biggest fortress in southern France and of great importance to military historians.

In days of yore, the Lords of Castelnau where not the shrinking violet types, claiming allegiance to no-one but the Counts of Toulouse and to be the 'second Barons of Christendom'. Not surprisingly, such fighting talk ended up in, well, fighting and the castle was the scene of some of the bitterest fighting of the hundred years war in these parts. In the end it took a Frenchman to tame the castle... Simon de Montfort took it by storm during the Albigensian Crusade. The French Revolution brought further fighting and the drawbridge was destroyed.

It fell to an opera singer to repair all the ravages of war and time! In 1895 Jean Mouliérat bought the much declined castle and dedicated the rest of his life restoring it, bequeathing it to the nation in 1932. We are glad he did.