The Château de Châtillon-d'Azergues is a ruined
castle
A castle is a type of fortification, fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by Military order (monastic society), military orders. Scholars usually consider a ''castle'' to be the private ...
in the ''
commune'' of
Châtillon (formerly Châtillon-d'Azergues) in the
Rhône
The Rhône ( , ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Ròse''; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Rôno'') is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and Southeastern France before dischargi ...
''
département
In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...
'' of France.
The castle's construction is dated to the 13th and 15th centuries. All that remains of the castle is the
keep
A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residen ...
and a tower. The 12th century Chapel of Saint-Barthélémy, known as Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours, is at the side of the castle.
History
A Châtillon family was recorded from the end of the 10th or the 11th centuries. In 1173, the castle was the property of the Count of Forez, who ceded it to the Archbishop of Lyon. During the 13th century, the Oingt family had possession before it passed by marriage to the Albons. In 1260, the keep was mentioned in an act which stipulated that "''les habitants de Châtillon sont tenus à travailler aux réparations du château, mais rien ne peut leur être imposé pour le donjon qui sert exclusivement de retraite au seigneur''" ("the inhabitants of Châtillon are required to work on repairs of the castle, but nothing can be imposed on them for the keep which is used exclusively as retirement for the lord").
[Charles-Laurent Salch, ''Dictionnaire des châteaux et des fortifications du Moyen Âge en France'', 1987, 1304 p. (), p. 313.]
Description
The site consists of a polygonal ''
enceinte
Enceinte (from Latin ''incinctus'' "girdled, surrounded") is a French term that refers to the "main defensive enclosure of a fortification". For a castle, this is the main defensive line of wall towers and curtain walls enclosing the positio ...
'' with several buildings from the 13th to 16th centuries. In the centre of the ''enceinte'' is the 13th century cylindrical keep. It is 30 m high and 9.5 m in diameter with walls 1.5 m thick. Only the ground floor was vaulted. During the 15th century, a hexagonal staircase towers was attached which asloserved the other buildings. The oldest part of the castle is a 12th-century rectangular building supported by very flat
buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act ...
es,
[ connected to each other by blind arcades forming a decoration known as a ''frise lombarde'' (Lombardy ]frieze
In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...
).
The 12th century Saint-Barthélémy chapel, known as Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours, situated to the east of the castle, was the original castle chapel.
The castle is privately owned and closed to the public. The chapel was listed in 1862 as a ''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 collection of buildings, ...
'' by the French Ministry of Culture
The Ministry of Culture () is the ministry (government department), ministry of the Government of France in charge of List of museums in France, national museums and the . Its goal is to maintain the French identity through the promotion and pro ...
; the castle itself has been listed since 1937.
See also
*List of castles in France
This is a list of castles in France, arranged by Regions of France, region and Departments of France, department.
;Notes:
# The French word ''château'' has a wider meaning than the English ''castle'': it includes architectural entities that are p ...
References
External links
*
Castles in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Monuments historiques of Rhône (department)
Ruined castles in France
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