The perched position of this village, built on the rock, at an altitude of 758 m and overlooking the entire Loup valley, gave it a defensive role. Gourdon has often served as a stronghold. It has been occupied since Roman times, then by the Saracens, from the 8th to the 10th century. A first fortress was built in the 9th century. In the 12th century, the counts of Provence, lords of Gourdon, built the castle on these foundations. The fortifications, with impassable walls, helped the village play a role of sentinel, which it retained until it was occupied by the Germans during World War II. The post-war period put an end to this defensive function and the village turned to tourism. This revival of activity put an end to the decline in the population, due to the rural exodus that began in the 19th century.
The village, very old, is built on an almost absolute peak with steep, rocky, bare, fantastic slopes, overlooking the Loup valley. He is the real type of the feudal village. The rocks on which it is built served as its ramparts, making it impregnable in feudal times. The feudal castle closes it on the western part. The North is the only accessible part. There we can still see the old and solid ramparts which closed this side. A single Gothic door gave access to the village: "It was not long ago that we had the deplorable idea of ??destroying it under the pretext of widening the passage". The ramparts - what remains of it, are thick walls, very high, pierced with loopholes, dominated by battlements. Inside, houses are attached to it; the owners have pierced the ramparts with windows.
The occupation of the country by Saracen troops began in the year 700 and ended in 937, when the Moors were driven from their last refuges.
In the 9th and 11th centuries, a first fortress was built to protect itself from the Saracens; on its foundations another castle was built in the 13th century, then remodeled in the following century in "the Tuscan spirit". It is this building that the Count of Provence, Raymond Bérenger, acquires, before handing it over to his nephew.
In the 12th century, the counts of Provence raised a stronghold on the foundations of the 9th century fortress while they organized the defense of their border between the county of Ventimiglia and the county of Provence. “Gordon” becomes “Gourdon”: fortified site on the rocky sheer. The general plan remains of this construction with, at the angles, three round towers and the large wall forming a rampart to the north and looking towards the Pré-du-Lac - Gréolières road.
The seigneury of Gourdon belonged until April 3, 1235 to the Counts of Provence and successively to the family of Grasse, Lord of the Bar, then to the Villeneuves. Louis de Villeneuve received in 1469 the homage of the inhabitants of Gourdon, Charles VIII in 1495 confirms it in the privilege and the high jurisdiction of the place. The castle then fell to the Bourillon d'Aspremont and then to the Lombard. During the wars of the League, Henri Charles de Grasse Canaux, commanded the place he occupied and stood up to the leaguers from the top of this impregnable fortress. In March 1597 and November 1598, Louis de Lombard acquired the whole of the seigneury of Gourdon for 12,000 crowns. In this circumstance, Henry IV, protector of Messire Louis de Lombard, exonerated tax and transfer rights in recognition of his loyal services in the wars of religion, letters patent of August 30, 1597 bearing the autograph signature of Henri IV, bearing the royal seal (exhibited at the castle).
The Lombard inherited the title of Marquis de Montauroux, following a marriage in 1672. Louis de Lombard had the castle which had been damaged during the wars of religion redone and partially modified. The arcades and the first floor of the castle were built in 1610 in the spirit of the arcades of the Place des Vosges in Paris, built at the same time (1607).
The second floor of the castle was built in 1653 by Francois de Lombard who married Gabrielle de Grimaldi in 1654; the Grand Condé, Duke of Enghien, distinguished the said lord of Gourdon for, "having been at the battle of Rocroi on May 19, 1643, having served his Majesty with great dignity there and lost an arm with a cannon shot".
During the wars of the Austrian succession, in 1746, Lieutenant General de Guise lodged at the Château de Gourdon and had a duel with the Count of Bissy in the park.
The history of the Revolution in Gourdon was made without struggles or violence. John Paul I of Lombard, then Lord of Gourdon, did not emigrate. His presence, his liberal ideas saved his castle from devastation. Acquired in new ideas, he willingly submitted to the laws resulting from the change of regime. Retired in Grasse in his hotel, he died there in 1799.
In 1794, the Sieur Cavalier in charge of checking the castles in order to see "those which are covered with marks of feudalism" to have them demolished, said that that of Gourdon had four towers. It was not destroyed, only its towers had to suffer, the northern one downed, the other three reduced.
John Paul II of Lombard is the last of the Lombard. In 1785 he was captain of the Royal Lorraine Cavalry regiment. He was Mayor of Gourdon on October 7, 1809 and died in 1820 in Grasse. He bequeaths the castle to his nephew the Marquis de Villeneuve-Bargemon whose heirs will sell the house in 1918 to an American, Miss Noris, who opens a museum in 1938. American citizen, she becomes the Lord of Gourdon until her death. dead. Handed over to the Countess of Zalewska, the mansion now belongs to Laurent Negro, who inherited the castle in 1997, upon the death of his father, a famous French businessman.
In 1950, it was opened to visitors but did not finally take on its vocation as a historical monument until 1971, when it opened to the collections on display there. It is listed in the inventory of historical monuments on December 7, 1972.
In 2015, the castle was closed to the public and belongs to a Parisian family.
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