The Château de Montrond is a ruined

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

in the '' commune'' of

Montrond-les-Bains Montrond-les-Bains () is a Communes of France, commune in the Loire (department), Loire Departments of France, department in central France. Population See also *Communes of the Loire department References

Communes of Loire (depart ...

in the Loire '' département'' of France. As with other ruined feudal castles in the ''département'', such as the Château de Rochetaillée in

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; frp, Sant-Etiève; oc, Sant Estève, ) is a city and the prefecture of the Loire department in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Saint-Étienne is the t ...

and the

Château d'Essalois The Château d'Essalois is a restored castle in the ''Communes of France, commune'' of Chambles in the Loire (department), Loire ''Departments of France, département'' of France, overlooking a dammed portion of the river Loire, Lake Grangent. H ...

Chambles Chambles () is a commune in the Loire department in central France. The commune has an area of 18.90 km2 and its altitude ranges from 360 to 741 meters. As of 2019, there were 522 dwellings in Chambles, of which 420 main residences.

, the Château de Montrond-les-Bains has been partly restored. For some years, a mediaeval festival has been organised in August.

History

The castle is named after Mont Rond, a volcanic dyke which dominates the surrounding plain. A 12th century reference in Latin to a ''castrum montais rondunti'' indicates the presence of a small fortification, the property of the

Counts of Forez Forez is a former province of France, corresponding approximately to the central part of the modern Loire ''département'' and a part of the Haute-Loire and Puy-de-Dôme ''départements''. The final "z" in Forez () is not pronounced in the Loire ...

. In 1302, Count Jean I transferred title to Montrond and its tower to Arthaud de Saint-Germain. Around 1325, Arthaud IV undertook the construction of the first castle. In 1523, the marriage of Arthaud IX to Marguerite d’Albon, the daughter of Jean, governor of the children of François I, allowed the ''

seigneurie In English law, seignory or seigniory, spelled ''signiory'' in Early Modern English (; french: seigneur, lit=lord; la, senior, lit=elder), is the lordship (authority) remaining to a grantor after the grant of an estate in fee simple. ''Nulle terre ...

'' of Montrond to reach the height of its renown. The austere fortress was transformed into a beautiful and rich home in Renaissance style. Heavily involved in the Wars of Religion, the descendants of Arthaud IX retained their property thanks to their fidelity to the royal power. The family left Montrond in 1730 to establish themselves close to Paris. The last marquis, Antoine-Claude, was guillotined there in April 1793. In September of the same year, the Château de Montrond was burned by a detachment of revolutionary soldiers. The Apchon-Montrond family died out in 1807 with the death of a girl without descendants. The castle was sold to an individual in 1828 who used it as a quarry for stones. Left abandoned for a century and a half, it was saved from certain ruin by the ''Association des Amis du château'' (Association of Friends of the Castle) founded in 1969. The remains of the castle were listed as a ''

monument historique ''Monument historique'' () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which National Heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a coll ...

'' in 1934, and the whole castle and its surroundings in 1946.

References

External links

* Ruined castles in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Monuments historiques of Loire (department) Forez {{France-castle-stub