Château de Montaigne

The Château de Montaigne is a castle mansion situated on the borders of Périgord and Bordelais, near Bergerac and Saint-Émilion, in the small commune of Saint-Michel-de-Montaigne in the Dordogne département of France.

The structure originated in the 14th century and was the family residence of the Early Modern philosopher and thinker Michel de Montaigne.

Henry IV had already named him gentleman of the chamber (French: gentilhomme de sa chambre) by letters patent in 1577.

From 1571 until his death in 1592, Michel de Montaigne wrote his famous Essays (French: Essais), major works of humanism of the renaissance, and fruits of a lifetime of reflection and reading.

She entertained there Marie de Gournay, whom he had befriended in 1588 during a voyage to Paris, and to whom he had sent an annotated copy of the Essays requesting that she take care of its publication (which did not happen until fifteen months later).