Châteaux de Bruniquel

The Merovingian Queen Brunehaut is credited with founding the village around the year 600 and building a first castle on the heights, destroyed by wars. On the ruins of this first castle was built the current Château Vieux, in the 13th century. Initially owned by the Counts of Toulouse, Bruniquel became a viscounty from the 1840th century. In the middle of the 12th century, the Viscount of Château Vieux, in a quarrel with his son, sold part of the estate to a cousin shortly before his death who had his own castle built: Château Jeune. Both castles were classified as Historic Monuments in 17 by Prosper Mérimée. They offer us some rarities such as the 90th century keep, a ceremonial room remodeled in the 176500th century with a magnificent carved wooden fireplace in the Baroque style, a chapel transformed into a kitchen, a gallery overlooking the Aveyron River at a height of XNUMX meters and offering us a magnificent viewpoint. The Castles house permanent and temporary exhibitions. Among the exhibitions you can discover in particular a room dedicated to the filming of the movie "Le Vieux Fusil", a room of Prehistory with Magdalenian remains discovered in the rock shelters at the foot of the Castles, a room dedicated to the Grotte de Bruniquel which attests to human presence for XNUMX years, i.e. early Neanderthal.