Château de Montfleury: A Medieval Strong House and Museum in France
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.7
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern, Modern
- Civilizations
- Duchy of Savoy
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Castle
On this page7 sections
History
Château de Montfleury is a former medieval strong house in France, built as the center of the Montfleury lordship. A strong house was a fortified residence used to protect and administer a lord’s estate rather than a purely military fortress. Construction began in the late thirteenth century, and the château was remodeled during the sixteenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. It stands in Avressieux, Savoie, about 750 metres southeast of the village center.
The Montfleury Lordship
The Montfleury fief was granted to Amédée Roccard on 1 October 1392. By the middle of the sixteenth century, the château belonged to a branch of the Mareste family. During the eighteenth century, the lordship was raised to a barony, and the family held the title of barons of Montfleury. In 1728, the Marestes restored the château.
Ownership and Changing Uses
Appolinaire Louis Adolphe de Mareste d’Avressieux, the last member of this branch, died in 1867. In 1858, he arranged a fictitious sale of the château to his mistress, the Baroness de Rubempré. She left it in 1873 to her daughter, Isidore Alberte Cozette de Rubempré, who was married to the Piedmontese gentleman Count of Luzerna. Their grandson, an astronomer and inventor, sold the property in 1893.
The château subsequently passed to M. Giraud, who lived in Moscow. In 1960, it was converted into a holiday center, a use that caused substantial damage. M. Prière acquired the property in 1972, restored it, and converted it into the Musée du Vieux Terroir. The château is currently used as that museum.
Louis Mandrin, an eighteenth-century French smuggler and rebel, used Château de Montfleury as one of his hiding places. A pistol said to have belonged to him is held in the château’s collection of antiquities.
Remains
The surviving complex is organized around a thirteenth-century keep, later expanded by residential and defensive additions. Its medieval core rises to approximately 30 metres, while later building work attached new structures to the original tower and added a Renaissance-style wing.
Medieval Keep and Later Additions
Tour Sarrazine
The thirteenth-century keep, known as the Tour Sarrazine, remains the principal medieval structure. It stands approximately 30 metres high and preserves the fortified core of the former strong house.
Residential and Defensive Extensions
During the sixteenth century, a residential building, a hexagonal tower, and a projecting sentry turret were attached to the keep. A projecting sentry turret is a small fortified structure extending outward from a building so guards could observe and defend its approaches. A wing in a Renaissance style was added during the nineteenth century, completing the principal sequence of additions around the medieval tower.
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