Château de Lourdes - Musée pyrénéen (Lourdes)

Erected on a rocky outcrop, the fortified castle dominates the city. The few studies on the fortified castle are sorely lacking in ancient sources. These gaps are the consequence of two destructive sieges that the city of Lourdes experienced in 1374 and 1573. The majority of the archives were then scattered and burned.
The fortified castle of Lourdes was built in the 11th century and plays a political and economic role going beyond its defensive vocation. It served as a stately home for the Counts of Bigorre until the 12th century. The complex interplay of alliances and medieval conflicts transformed it into a stronghold and then into a royal prison in the 17th and 18th centuries. Transformed into barracks between 1820 and 1850, the castle nevertheless retains its defensive systems: enclosure, drawbridge, portcullis, keep and bastion. Declassified as a military structure, it was purchased by the city of Lourdes in 1894. The current state of the castle is the result of the continuous evolution of the fortification. Because it covers an important part of the history of military architecture, it is a remarkable witness to the evolution of the fortifications of the Pyrenean foothills. The classification, in 1995, among the Historic Monuments confirms this exceptional interest.
Since 1921, it has housed the Pyrenean Museum, labeled Musée de France, which brings together the most important collections on the history of the Pyrenees from the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century.