Château de Larunque

The château de Larunque in Saint-Laurent-de-Gosse, France, is a historic country residence that emerged under French ownership in the late 19th century, and today reflects an Italian Renaissance-inspired appearance created during a late 20th-century rebuilding. The site began as a rural estate in the 1600s known as Larenque, a farm that was linked to the nearby Château de Lagurgue. Over centuries it remained part of local landed property before being transformed into a purpose-built residence in the 1800s.

Around 1870 Xavier de La Croix de Ravignan had a prestigious house erected on the land he had inherited, marking the estate’s transition from farming holdings to a gentleman’s home. In the early decades of the 1900s his daughter Marie-Antoinette, who married Raymond Merle de la Brugière de Laveaucoupet, adapted the property to serve as a secondary family residence, using it for leisure and seasonal use rather than primary domestic life. The estate remained in that family line until it was sold in 1957.

After 1957 the château passed through a series of private hands. Owners included a former colonial army colonel who had served in Morocco, a teacher active in French cooperation efforts in Africa, and later a real-estate developer from Bayonne. In 1977 a major fire gutted much of the building, and the house stood empty for an extended period following that damage.

In 1993 an entrepreneur with an interest in the arts bought the property and set about an ambitious restoration that reopened the site as a centre for artistic activity, taking visual cues from Italian Renaissance models. Work carried out between 1993 and 1995 rebuilt and reimagined the house and grounds, and the estate later changed hands again, first to a British businessman and then to a professional jockey. In 2021 new ownership refocused the property toward low-carbon lodging and meetings, and the site obtained the European Ecolabel in 2024. The château now operates as an environmentally minded retreat hosting themed stays, professional seminars, and cultural events.