Château de Mongenan

Mongenan Castle, located in the town of Portets in the French department of Gironde, is a castle of the eighteenth century, included as a historic monument in 2003 and labeled remarkable garden. The castle was built in 1736 by the architect Le Herissey on behalf of Baron Antoine Gascq, co-founder with Montesquieu Academy of Sciences, Belles-Lettres et Arts de Bordeaux and President of the Parliament of Guyenne.

It is the birthplace of Claude Antoine Valdec Lessart, illegitimate son of Baron Gascq. The castle is now a museum, with furniture of the eighteenth century preserved in the state. Including its botanical garden contains over a thousand varieties of roses. The garden was designed according to the precepts of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a friend of Baron Gascq. The castle also has a Masonic temple, used from 1750 to 1898 and is the only example held in the state of French Masonic Temple of the eighteenth century.