The castle is located in the town of Lacave, in the French department of Lot.
The existence of the Château de la Treyne is attested in 1342. Its construction is probably due to Guillaume and Hughes de Rouffilhac whose family is from Gourdon where it attested since the 12th century. On January 27, 1356, on the Avignon bridge, Noble Guillaume de Rouffilhac pays homage, bare head, on his knees and hands joined to "Magnificent man Messire Guillaume de Beaufort", knight, viscount of Turenne, for the castle instead of the Treyne, on the edge of the Dordogne.
Probably after the extinction of the Rouffilhac branch, the Vicomte de Turenne entrusted the seigneury of Treyne, "with all high, medium and low justice", to a noble man Annet Hugon du Cluzel, on May 12, 1462. The knight Annet du Cluzel had the church of Meyraguet built in which he was buried.
On May 7, 1519, noble Jean de la Treyne, son of Annet du Cluzel, married Jeanne de Coustin de Bourzolles. In 1540, Jean de la Treyne paid homage to the king for the castle, the woods, the rents and full justice he received from the viscount of Turenne, François III de La Tour (1526-1557).
In 1553, Louis de Cluzel was lord of Treyne. He married Colette, known as Jeanne de Ricard de Genouillac (died in 1607).
Pierre de La Ramière was married by contract of December 11, 1553 with Gallienne de Cluzel, daughter of the late Jean seigneur de la Treyne en Quercy, gentleman of the King's household, and of damoiselle Jeanne de Coustin. Pierre de la Ramière received from his brother-in-law, Louis de Cluzel, the sum of 1140 pounds for his share in the maternal inheritance of his wife. He is nicknamed "Captain la Ramière". He converted to the Protestant religion. He was credited with the victory of the Protestant army from Coligny to La Roche-l'Abeille on June 25, 1569. This battle was the first in which Henri de Navarre took part, in the presence of his mother, Jeanne d'Albret. Pierre de La Ramière was killed in October 1569 at the siege of Saint-Jean-d'Angély. After the death of her husband, Gallienne de la Treyne was persecuted "because of the Protestant religion which she and her husband had taken", and to have suffered a lot "by various" lawsuits and looting of her houses ". From this marriage were born seven children, six boys and a girl, all young. The eldest, Gilles, was the universal heir with the exception of the noble house of Pécharnault, in Agenais, which was given to Jean, the second son. This one married, in first marriage, with Jeanne du Vignal de Broval, and in second marriage, with Suzanne of Cluzel de la Treyne, his first cousin.
The castle is considered a den of Huguenots. It was set on fire in 1586, by order of the Duke of Mayenne, lieutenant of King Henry III.
Louis de Cluzel was assassinated in 1592. The seigneury of La Treyne passed to his son, Jacques Galiot du Cluzel, squire who paid homage to the Vicomte de Turenne, Henri I de la Tour d'Auvergne, on December 2, 1600. He died without posterity in 1607. The seigneury then passed to Jean de La Ramière, son of Pierre de La Ramière. Jean de La Ramière died in 1616. His sons bury his body at night in the church of Meyraguet despite the ban on burying in Catholic cemeteries the bodies of the deceased who belonged to the allegedly reformed religion.
In 1622, a decision of the Parliament of Toulouse ordered the destruction of the Château La Treyne, already ruined by the fire "in view of the rebellion and the excesses" of the son of Jean de La Ramière, guilty of lese majesté. This order did not have to be executed.
Gideon I de La Ramière began, around 1625, to fit out his father's home. Before 1643, the restoration of the castle was completed, leaving the old 14th century square keep by adjoining to the north a dwelling flanked by a large round tower. It pays homage to Frédéric-Maurice de la Tour, Duke of Bouillon and Prince of Sedan “for the castle and the seigneury”. His son, Gédéon II abjures the Protestant religion as evidenced by his will dated April 5, 1701. Then his son, Pierre, died without posterity in 1710. The seigneury then passed to his sister Marie de La Ramière who married in 1711 with Jean III de Cardaillac, Lord of Végennes, captain in the Royal-Artillery regiment and knight of Saint-Louis. John III died on March 20, 1752. He was buried in the church of Meyraguet. On the death of his wife, Marie de La Ramière, lady of Cardaillac, the seigneury of La Treyne devolved to their son, François-Emmanuel de Cardaillac who married, on January 28, 1748, demoiselle Jeanne de Montalembert. He enlarged the castle around 1760.
On June 8, 1738, the Viscount of Turenne was sold to Louis XV, to repay the gambling debts of Charles-Godefroy de La Tour d'Auvergne.
By letters patent of the King of December 29, 1759, François-Emmanuel received the barony and the marquisate of Cardaillac in Quercy. François-Emmanuel, Marquis de Cardaillac, paid homage to the king from 1760 to 1778 for the land and the seigneury of La Treyne and Meyraguet. He died in 1782. His son Joseph, born in 1752, married Charlotte de Roquemaurel on March 27, 1783. He is the King's Lieutenant for the province of Guyenne. He was at the Château de La Treyne on September 28, 1822.
Jean-Jacques-Joseph-Frédéric, Marquis de Cardaillac, great-grandson of Joseph de Cardaillac, sold the castle and the domain of La Treyne on September 20, 1910 to a wealthy Parisian industrialist, Auguste-Gabriel Savard, inventor of the Bijou Fix . The latter had the interiors restored and fitted out. He entrusted the creation of the French garden to the then fashionable landscape botanist, Édouard André (1840-1911).
In 1922, Mr. Savard sold the property to a Spanish industrialist, Mr. Fontana, who commissioned the coffered ceiling and woodwork for the Grand Salon and the Salon de Musique.
During the Second World War, André Chamson, then head of the Egyptian Antiquities department at the Louvre Museum, watched over some of the museum's treasures which were temporarily stored at the Château de La Treyne for protection, among which, the famous Crouching scribe. In memory of his stay at La Treyne, André Chansom had the site listed as a picturesque site of the Lot (Ministerial decree of 6 November 1946).
On April 10, 1954, Monsieur Santiard and Madame Bulteau bought the château. They presented their magnificent collection of Renaissance furniture and works of art (16th century) which are now on display at the Château de Bourdeilles. Mr. Santiard had a neo-Romanesque chapel built around 1954 in the park, integrating Romanesque and Gothic elements from Cuelvas in Spain.
The castle was bought by the Gombert family in 1982. After ten years of work, the castle became one of the brands in the Lot of "Relais et Châteaux".
The facades, the roofs, the straight staircase, the decorations of the large living room and the billiard room on the ground floor of the castle are listed as historical monuments by the decree of May 3, 1990, amended on September 17 2008.
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