
The square tower is the oldest part of the castle but the exact date of construction is unknown. It was enlarged during the 13th and 14th centuries. Studying the evolution of the architecture tells us something of the lives of the family who have owned it since 1437, when Amalric de La Panouse married Margueritte des Salles, heiress of the Colombier. The Colombier branch of the La Panouse family lived in the Colombier until the time of the French Revolution when the revolutionary climate led them to leave the castle. The Colombier then became very quiet for some time, hidden deep in the Aveyron countryside. Two generations later, in 1872, Raoul de La Panouse married his cousin Angélique de Vogüé, heiress of the Château de Thoiry near Paris, which remains in the family to this today. In 1968 Raoul’s great-grandson, Paul de La Panouse, founded the famous Thoiry Zoological Park in the grounds of the Chateau de Thoiry. Then, in the early 1980s, a visit to the Colombier by Paul’s wife Annabelle de La Panouse was the catalyst for bringing the Château du Colombier out of its torpor. When she saw the Colombier for the first time she fell in love with the site, and set about encouraging her husband to restore the chateau as part of a project featuring a park based on the theme of the mediaeval lifestyle.