The Prisoner of Château de Puymartin

After a husband caught his cheating wife, the punishment for her lasted into the afterlife.

The honey colored towers of this elegant castle in France is like taken out of a fairytale romance. But the tales about this castle, is by no means fairytale-like, but more of a horror story without a nice ending.

The Prisoner of Château de Puymartin: er a husband caught his cheating wife, the punishment for her lasted into the afterlife. — **The Prison:** The castle that used to be her home turned into her prison were she lived her remaining years in the tower and the rest of eternity walled up.
Photo: Manfred Heyde source

The legend of la Dame Blanche, or the woman in white is said to be the spirit of Thérèse de Saint-Clar. She was married to Jean de Saint-Clar, the man of the house in the 1500s. It could also have been Raymond de Saint-Clar who fought in the French Wars of Religion and managed to get rid of the Huguenots from Sarlat. The timeline with the names can get a bit messy. But either way, he was away at war and she took a lover.

But the affair would not stay secret for long. After distinguishing himself in the battles, he was allowed to return home to his home and wife. She was found in her lover’s arm when the husband suddenly returned from the war. The husband went mad, killing her lover out of jealousy and imprisoning his cheating wife.

For years she was trapped in the northern tower, never allowed to leave, not even after her death. She died thereafter in what was called a ‘fifteen long years of repentance’. The door was supposedly walled up, only leaving a small trap door to bring her food. She was stripped away from the fine living she was used to, only leaving a bad mattress to sleep on in a corner. And she had to look out from the window through the barrs, preventing her from escaping.

According to legend her body was sealed inside the walls of the room when she died, trapping her there, even in her afterlife. Since then, she comes back to haunt the castle at night. At least now she can move outside the tower. She wanders the stairs, her room and on the pathways around the grounds.