Château de Fiac

The château de Fiac in Fiac, France is a site whose origins lie in the medieval period, first established in the 12th century by local feudal authorities as a fortified castle on a raised earthwork. The location later became associated with a 19th-century country house often called the Château de Chaminade. The place mattered locally as the administrative center of the castellany of Fiac and figured in the shifting lordships of southern France during the high and late Middle Ages.

The earliest stronghold stood on a motte (earthen mound) at a place known as la ville, the spot now occupied by the town’s water-tower square. That castle served as the seat of the châtellenie, the local castellan’s jurisdiction. In 1208 the castellany came under the control of Simon de Montfort, gained through his role in the Albigensian Crusade, the campaign aimed at suppressing the Cathar movement in Languedoc. After Simon, the lordship passed through his family line to Philippe I de Montfort, then to his son Philippe II and to Philippe II’s son Jean.

In 1315 the castellany transferred by inheritance to Guy de Comminges, son of Bernard VII de Comminges and Laure de Montfort. Sometime after that change in ownership the castellany was attached to the royal domain of France. The medieval castle itself was destroyed at the start of the seventeenth century.

A new residence took shape in the nineteenth century, reportedly built upon the remains of a seventeenth- and eighteenth-century house. That nineteenth-century château was commissioned by the de Rivals family and erected a short distance from the original motte, outside the village. The de Rivals later sold the property and moved to a house across the road. Ownership then passed through several hands before the Marianist congregation acquired the estate and established the Chaminade institute, which served first as a private college and later as a retirement home. In 2010 a private owner bought the property and began a conversion aimed at luxury apartments. The building has since been renovated and now operates as a high-end hotel that was due to open in July 2021.