Feissons Castle (Château de Feissons): A Former Fortified House in France
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.2
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- France
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Duchy of Savoy
- Site type
- Military
- Remains
- Castle
On this page10 sections
History
Feissons Castle, also known as Château de Feissons-sous-Briançon, is a former fortified house in France, near Feissons-sur-Isère in La Léchère. Built within the medieval period, it became the center of the lordship of Feissons, which was raised to a county in 1680.
Briançon Origins and the Thirteenth Century
An earlier castle belonging to the Briançon family was recorded in 1082. The family, whose presence is traced to around 900, held the title of viscounts of Tarentaise, a historic territory of the Duchy of Savoy. According to legend, Humbert II of Savoy destroyed the earlier castle because its owners were accused of pillage and brigandage.
In 1250, Pierre d’Aigueblanche, lord of Briançon, received the fief of Feissons. A fief was a territory or jurisdiction granted under a feudal relationship. The oldest parts of the present fortified house may date from the thirteenth century, linking the surviving complex with this period of Briançon control.
Changes of Lordship
The fief passed through several hands during the fourteenth century. Pierre, lord of Feissons, received it in 1330. Amédée de Conflens received Feissons in 1357 and was confirmed in his jurisdiction between 1358 and 1359. The associated dependencies were granted to Rodolphe, lord of Montmayeur, canon of Geneva, and an ally of the Briançon family. In 1379, Antoine and Amédée Benet and their wives, Catherine and Antoinette, received the castle.
Marie de Villette was granted the fortified house as a fief in 1427 and again in 1447. She was the daughter of Humbert of Chevron and married Bertrand de Duyn, lord of Val d’Isère, in 1434. In 1451, Bertrand de Duyn received the motte and castle of Feissons. A motte was a raised mound supporting a fortified site.
Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Conflicts
In 1505, Jean de Duyn, baron of Val d’Isère, lord of Combefort, and viscount of Tarentaise, was authorized to erect gallows at the site. He later married Françoise de Tavares of Portugal in 1530.
French troops under Francis I captured the castle in 1536 during the war between Savoy and France. The conflict was connected with Francis I’s claim to the Duchy of Milan and resulted in the first French occupation of the Duchy of Savoy. Henry IV’s troops captured the castle again in 1600 during the Franco-Savoyard War, a conflict between the French crown and Savoy. The castle was subsequently dismantled, and the war produced a second French occupation of Savoy.
County Status and Later Use
In 1680, the lordship of Feissons was raised to a county for Charles-Victor-Joseph de Saint-Thomas. In 1700, letters patent granted the lordship with a clause preventing its alienation for the benefit of the inhabitants of Feissons. The site is currently used as a restaurant.
Remains
The remains stand northeast of the village of Feissons-sur-Isère, downstream from Notre-Dame-de-Briançon. The fortified house occupies a natural mound with very steep southwest sides, while access is comparatively easier from the northeast and northwest. A moat about 12 metres wide once accompanied the enclosure, whose elongated rectangular plan is defined by walls approximately 1 metre thick.
Fortifications and Keep
Mound and Enclosure
The defensive enclosure surrounds a cylindrical main tower dating from the middle of the thirteenth century. The moat and enclosing wall formed the outer defensive perimeter, while turrets strengthened the complex. The position of the house on a natural mound gave the southwest side steep ground, and the enclosure was arranged around the principal tower.
Keep
The keep was placed opposite the weaker side of the position. It rises 26 metres and originally contained five storeys, with floors supported by an internal wall offset. Its walls measure about 2.80 metres thick at the base and 2.24 metres at the top. The lower part is built from ordinary rubble set in mortar, and the entrance opens 8 metres above ground level.
At the top, a platform rests on a vault. A crenellated parapet protects a wall-walk, a passage running along the top of a defensive wall, around the platform. The first floor contains a fireplace made of dressed tuff stone, while the second floor has a latrine.
Sixteenth-Century Residential Building
A large quadrangular residential building stands beside the cylindrical tower and is dated to 1536. It has three storeys beneath an attic and is constructed from small rubble masonry. Its openings are framed with dressed stone.
At ground-floor level, each corner is flanked by a solid round turret. A doorway on every storey connects the residential building with the turrets, integrating the domestic rooms and the corner structures within the later phase of the fortified complex.
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