In 1893, Madame Carnot, the wife of Sadi Carnot, President of France, purchased the ruins and offered them as a gift to her eldest son, Colonel Sadi Carnot. He decided to give a second life to the castle and to restore it according to its original 15th century style.

It took more than 25 years for this ambitious task to be realized.
This restoration, based on a trove of archives, archeological excavations and a skilled team of craftmen, was aimed at full historical authenticity.

The new owner, Colonel Sadi Carnot, surrounded himself with highly qualified specialists: Charles Suisse, the chief architect of the Historical Monuments in Dijon and Xavier Sckanovski, a local sculptor, both of whom had already restored many structures in Burgundy. This building project gave work to a large number of the 600 inhabitants of the village of La Rochepot, many of whom had been unemployed since the devastation of the vineyards by phylloxera.

The end result is a meticulously accurate restoration.
Among the castles of France, the Château de La Rochepot, as it stands today, represents the most evocative example of a lordly fortress of the Middle Ages.

By virtue of its unique and elegant character, tumultous history and the stability it emanates at present, its image has come to symbolise the region of Burgundy throughout the world.