7,500 people just banded together to buy a castle in France — and it's not too late to join them

Mothe-Chandeniers/Facebook

If you've ever dreamed of owning a French chateau, you're not alone. On Friday, 7,500 internet users banded together to buy a crumbling castle in the South of France through crowdfunding.

Sadly for them, that doesn't mean they all get a room to crash in. Instead, for a minimum of 60 euros, each participant gets a share of the castle, a membership card, and a say in what happens to its future.

The organizers of the project are part of a French group called "The Friends of the Castle of la Mothe-Chandeniers" that's dedicated to the preservation of the castle. The money was raised on Dartagnans, a French platform that crowdfunds French heritage preservation projects.

"It's done, it's historic! The Château de la Mothe-Chandeniers now belongs to thousands of Internet users," wrote the group on the fundraising page. 

The castle looks straight out of a fairytale, and it's not hard to see why the new owners decided to invest – here's what it's like.

The castle is in a tiny town in Western France called Les Trois-Moutiers.

The construction timeline of the castle is unknown, but the organizers think it dates back to the thirteenth century.

According to the campaign organizers, it was looted and abandoned during the French Revolution before being bought and restored by a wealthy Parisian businessman in 1809. Later, a squire of Napoleon bought it and undertook a massive restoration. 

But disaster struck in 1932 when a fire broke out and destroyed the castle.