In the 13th century: The origins of the castle
According to tradition, Edward Tiregand, son of Henry III Plantagenet and Lady Tyrgan, is the founder of the Lordship, which, in the Middle Ages, dominated the right bank of the Dordogne upstream of Bergerac. At this time, the ambitions of Edward I Plantagenet weighed on the kingdom of France, thus, the English harvested Aquitaine in a Périgord which remained loyal to the King of France Philippe-Auguste. It was Edward Tyrgan who built a primitive castle which has disappeared today, of which only the moat remains.
Au XVIe siècle: Les guerres de religion
Around 1574, many descendants of Edward Tyrgan, established in Libourne, were divided because of the wars of religion. The Reformed disinherited by their fathers, including those who took up the old name of Tiregand, settled near Bergerac. The following year, the gold and silver shrine containing the relics of Saint Front was stolen in Périgueux by Huguenots. It was the Huguenot captains Jauré and La Palanque who transported the relics. Both from Bergerac, one a tavern owner and the other known for his robberies, they actively participated on August 6, 1575 in the capture of Périgueux. They moved the relics on the back of a donkey to the castle of Tiregand, before they were rushed to the Dordogne as legend attests.
In the 17th century
In 1620, Jean de Belrieu de Virazeil, royal bailiff of the town of Bergerac, became owner of Tiregand by marrying Marguerite Lecomte. Jean de Belrieu remarried and undertook the construction of a new castle at a place called Le Vieux Catsel between 1640 and 1663. Thus, this family retained its fiefdoms of Virazeil and Tiregand for more than a hundred years before passing it on again.
The impetus of the d'Augeard family in the 18th century
It was from the 18th century that Tiregand experienced a period of great architectural upheaval. The impetus was launched by Jean Charles d'Augeard, who recovered the castle through marriage, which was then made up of several buildings, three terraces extending from one another and different in shape and size. He then transformed the Vieux Castel into a winery and built a new one 500 meters from the Château de Tiregand.
The Old Castel transformed into a winery
The castle during the French Revolution
Joseph Lakanal par Achille Lemot
Lors de la Révolution française, Tiregand est menacé, comme tous les bien patrimoniaux de cette époque. Le château est déclaré bien national en 1794 et l’une de ses parties est démolie. Joseph Lakanal ( 1762-1845), président sous la Convention de l’instruction publique de 1792à 1795, arrive à Bergerac le 20 octobre 1793 pour procéder à la réquisition des chevaux pour l’armée mais ne se borne pas à l’objet premier de sa mission. Il ordonne la destruction de châteaux forts dont les châteaux de Badefol et de Tiregand. Cette démolition avait pour objectif premier la récupération de matériaux de construction pour l’armurerie de Bergerac.
A return to calm in the 19th century
After the Revolution, Tiregand returned to a normal living environment since in 1817 Francois Comte De la Marathonien bought the castle from the d'Augeard family. He did not carry out any work, but sold the castle in 1826 to Count Alexandre-César de La Panouse. Thus, he too brought his touch to the architecture of the castle by adding two dwellings with slate roofs juxtaposed to the main building, by fitting out the floors and closing the interior courtyard.
In turn, his son, César Arnaud Anatole de La Panouse, undertook important work in 1836. He built two imposing pavilions displaying the family coat of arms as well as medallions with the intertwined letters “LP”. The stables and outbuildings are attached to the north and north-east of the east dwelling. Then, Henri-Marie-Raoul, Count of La Panouse embellished several parts of the castle. He carried out the development of the gazebo in 1882 and the creation of the 324 meter deep well at the end of July 1885.
What remains of the gazebo built in 1882
Alexander Caesar of La
Panouse with two of his
children
The letters "LP" intertwined on the roof
The 20th century marked by the Saint-Exupéry
Le château passe alors dans les mains de la famille Saint-Exupéry par le mariage entre Marie-Joseph-Anatole « François» de Saint-Exupéry et Françoise Pauline Marie dite France de Boutray en 1941. Madame Francois de Saint Exupéry reprend le domaine du château de Tiregand en 1959 et réalise des travaux de restauration des murs de douves et des toitures. Ses héritiers, depuis 2002, avaient alors pour tâches de maintenir l’héritage familial.
Since 2022
A page is turning for the Saint-Exupéry and Tiregand with the sale of the property to the Guyots. Present in their family for almost two hundred years thanks to alliances, the Saint Exupéry family passed the baton to Louis Guyot, who now has the task of preserving this rich and wonderful heritage.
