Brittany · Ille-et-Vilaine, France

Château de Combourg

The cradle of Romanticism, by its most famous inhabitant's own account: François-René de Chateaubriand spent his brooding adolescence here, sleeping alone in the Cat Tower, and made Combourg's silences the opening of the Mémoires d'outre-tombe. Still owned by his descendants.

At a glance

Built: 12th–15th centuries
Style: Breton feudal castle
Commissioned by: Du Guesclin era lords; Chateaubriand family from 1761
Signature feature: Four massive towers over the Lac Tranquille
Chateaubriand: His boyhood home; the Cat Tower and its ghost story are his telling
Literature: Immortalised in the Mémoires d'outre-tombe
Continuity: Still in the Chateaubriand family line
Visiting: Open to visitors (seasonal calendar)