Château des Charmilles: A Nineteenth-Century Château in La Ravoire, France
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Modern
- Eras represented
- Modern
- Civilizations
- Unclassified
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Castle
History
Château des Charmilles is a nineteenth-century château in La Ravoire, France, in the historic region of Savoie. Count Léon Costa de Beauregard built it during the nineteenth century on the site of an earlier residence associated with Jean François Bertrand de La Pérouse, who served as Savoy’s extraordinary ambassador to England in the thirteenth century. That earlier residence had been built in the eighteenth century.
The Costa de Beauregard family still owned the château in 1933. It was later converted into Lycée des Charmilles, a private agricultural vocational lycée, or secondary school offering specialized agricultural education and practical training.
In 2005, Lycée des Charmilles merged with the Fondation du Bocage, the organization that owned Lycée du Bocage in Chambéry. In 2016, the foundation’s board concluded that the château no longer met safety standards and that the cost of upgrading it was excessive. The two school sites were consequently consolidated in Chambéry, and from the 2016 school year classes formerly held at the château moved to a new building in central Chambéry near Lycée du Bocage.
The château was subsequently offered for sale and purchased by a private developer. It is now privately owned.
Remains
Château des Charmilles stands on Rue Léon Costa de Beauregard in the Mollard district, north of La Ravoire. The four-storey building is flanked by two square towers. Its pavilion roof is formed from three sections covered with flat slate tiles, while a cupola marks the northwestern corner of the building.
Nearby sites
