Chateau-Fort de Bonaguil

[![bonaguil-front](http://www.tleaves.com/weblog/images/articles/bonaguil- front-thumb.jpg)](http://www.tleaves.com/weblog/images/articles/bonaguil- front.JPG)

[Chateau-Fort de Bonaguil](http://www.tleaves.com/weblog/images/articles /bonaguil-front.JPG)

In the latter years of the 15th century, after losing a lawsuit brought against him by his vassals, the Baron Berenger de Roqueteuil is reported to have said:

By Lord Jesus and all the saints of his glorious Paradise, I will raise a manor house that neither my unpleasant subjects will be able to take, nor English if they have the audacity to return there, nor even the powerful soldiers of King of France.

And that is just what he did, creating the awe-inspiring Chateau-Fort de Bonaguil over the course of 40 years.

Bonaguil is located between Perigord and Quercy, and is open to the public. If you’re brave enough, you can climb its decaying ramparts and contemplate the surrounding woods.

T.E. Lawrence said of Bonaguil “It is so perfect that it is almost ridiculous to call it a ruin.”