Rochechouart Castle & its museum - Destination Limoges

Immerse yourself in history and geology! The Château de Rochechouart has an incredible history. It was built on an ancient asteroid crater. The stones used for its construction are unique and bear the traces of this impact over 200 million years ago. Come visit this castle which will take you on a journey through time and space!

The official website

Visit the castle

A castle that imposes

Erected on a rocky promontory of breach, witness to a meteorite fallen more than 200 million years ago, Rochechouart impresses with the proud and majestic appearance of its walls and its towers audaciously raised above the Seed.

Rochechouart Museum ©Haute-Vienne Tourism – Laetis-CRTNA
©Haute-Vienne Tourisme – Laetis-CRTNA

The history of the castle

Already busy the Gallo-Roman period, then by an oratory founded in 805 by Roger, Count of Limoges, the site will host the imposing fortified castle, witness to the power of its builders. In the XNUMXth century, the break-up of the county of Limoges favored the emergence of viscounts, including that of Rochechouart and his house, born of the marriage of Aymeric 1st, brother of the Viscount of Limoges, with Eve d'Angoulème. As a result, she will be the ally of Richard Lion's Heart during the Franco-British conflict. From the first castle until the XNUMXth century, we know very little: probably a simple tower at the start, then a larger enclosure next to a convent, the first nucleus of a town that will become important. Guyenne was attached to France in 1259 and the last Aymeric fortified Rochechouart which, transformed in the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries, resisted the attacks of the Plantagenets and the Black Prince until the end of the Hundred Years' War.

The castle also became the seat of the sub-prefecture of Rochechouart and shelters a contemporary art museum where the exhibited works are harmoniously based on the historical dimension of the place.

The contemporary art museum

Since 1985, the castle has housed the Department's Museum of Contemporary Art.
Landscape, history and imagination are the three major themes that presided over the creation of this institution by the General Council of Haute-Vienne. In a remarkable XNUMXth century building, the dialogue between heritage and creation has enabled the constitution of a demanding collection of contemporary art as well as the creation of works more specific to the site.

In 1989, with the constitution of the Raoul Hausmann fund (with 600 works, and many archives) the Museum has found its tutelary figure with the famous Dadaist.

The Museum of Contemporary Art

Practical information

Schedule

The castle is open every day except Monday.
From March 1 to December 15: 10h-12h30 / 13h30-18h

Admission fees

Free on the 1st Sunday of the month (except in July and August)

Normal rate : €4,60
Reduced: €3, Pass checkbook €3,5
Child under 12 years old: free

Free for:
- Less than 18 years
- Students of artistic courses at universities and art schools
- Job seeker – RSA
- Beneficiaries of the allowance for people with disabilities
- Teachers as part of the preparation of an educational project
- ICOM map
- Press
- Artists in the collection
- Lenders