Château d'Opme

About

The Château d'Opme (pronounced 'ome') is an 11th-century castle, later converted to an elegant château, located in the commune of Romagnat, in the department of Puy-de-Dôme, in the Auvergne region of France, nine kilometres south of Clermont-Ferrand. Both the castle and garden are classified as Historic Monuments by the French Ministry of Culture: the gardens are classified as a remarkable garden (Remarkable Gardens of France).

The original castle was built at the end of the 11th century, making it one of the oldest castles in the Auvergne. It belonged to the Counts, and then the Dauphins, of Auvergne, and it guarded a pass through which ran the old Roman road from Clermont to Puy-en-Velay. Its name came from the Latin word Oppidum from the Gallo-Roman hilltop fortress towns of the region. The first castle had an interior court surrounded by five flowers, three of which still stand. In the 12th century a taller square castle keep with crenelation replaced one of the corner powers. The castle was captured by the English in 1381, then recaptured in 1393 by Marechal Boucicault and Marechal Sancerre. In 1613, the castle became the property of Antoine de Ribeyre, the treasurer...