Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Departments in this region: Ain, Allier, Ardèche, Cantal, Drôme, Haute-Loire, Haute-Savoie, Isère, Loire, Puy-de-Dôme, Rhône, Savoie
Chateaux of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
See all 12
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Commanderie de Celles
Neither château nor convent, but a farm run by warrior monks: the Commanderie de Celles was given to the Knights Templar in 1213 by Dalmas de Celles, then held by the Knights of Malta until the Revolution. Set 880 meters (2,890 feet) up in the Cantal, around an 11th-century Romanesque church, it…
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Château de Beaufort
A modern house set down inside a ruined fortress, without touching an old wall: that was the gamble of architect Jean-Jacques Julien, who bought Beaufort when its ruins were given fifteen years to live. The stronghold, built between the 13th and 16th centuries, stands on a rocky peak in the…
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Château de Veauce
A cistern carved out of the rock perhaps before the year 1000, towers from the 11th to the 15th century and a 148-foot watchtower nicknamed the Mal Coiffée: Veauce is a château a thousand years old, linked by tradition to Charlemagne's son Louis the Pious. The Cadier de Veauce barons, owners from…
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Château de Charmes
A thousand years of history, from the Clermonts to Imbert de Batarnay, adviser to kings from Louis XI to Francis I, had not prepared Charmes for twenty years of neglect, squatters and looting. A medieval keep in the hills of the Drôme, in southeastern France, it became a country house in the 17th…
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Château du Sailhant
On a triangular basalt spur about twenty meters high, the Château du Sailhant watches over the upper Auvergne. A 13th-century fortress, it stands not far from the Sailhant waterfall, a source of legends.
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Château de Messilhac
A Renaissance facade dated 1531, carved with a finesse rare in the Cantal, and upper floors left unfinished since the 16th century: Messilhac still shows the grand plan of Jean de Montamat, who set out to turn two medieval keeps into a house for pleasure. In the same family from the 13th century…
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Château de Pesteils
Never sold, only handed down through marriage from one family to the next, Pesteils left its family just once, during the French Revolution. Once the fortress of Polminhac, this mountain château in the Cantal, in the heart of Auvergne, watches over the Cère valley from a 40-meter keep with…
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Château de Parentignat
The Château de Parentignat is sometimes nicknamed the little Versailles of Auvergne, in the Puy-de-Dôme department in central France. Built starting in 1707, it has belonged to the Lastic family since it was first constructed. It holds one of the most significant collections of old master paintings…
