A chateau in south of France:yours for €50

A FRENCH castle in the Dordogne could be yours for just €50 (£46) – well, at least part of it – after heritage lovers launched a bid for the tumbledown 15th-century edifice with the pledge that all contributors would be “owners”.

Chateau le Paluel in Perigord in south-west France boasts eight bedrooms, stables, a windmill, pool and dovecote, all set in woodland and meadows. It has been seized by the state over concerns that it is falling into a state of irreversible disrepair. The owner, understood to be a Monacobased company managed by an Englishman, has until Sept 21 to pledge to save the castle before authorities auction it off.

With the deadline fast approaching, the association Adopte un Château has launched a crowdfunding operation to raise €500,000 (£460,000) to purchase and restore the edifice. Anyone who contributes as little as €50 will become part-owner of the building. By last night, some 1,150 people had raised €84,000 (£77,290). All funds will be returned should the campaign not reach its target by the deadline.

“Our conception is to say that a monument in peril is a monument that must have a collective destiny,” said Adopte un Château.

The castle fell derelict after being overrun by the Nazis in the Second

World War.

Adopte un Château says there are more than 30,000 castles in France, “many of them are unfortunately abandoned” and deteriorating.