Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château de la Rochette, located in Saint-Maurice-des-Champs en Saône-et-Loire, stands on a promontory overlooking Saint-Gengoux-le-National. Its architecture consists of a rectangular U-shaped building surrounded by four towers (one square and three round), as well as a main house body flanked by rectangular towers. A screw staircase serves the west wing, while a north wing in return of square retains traces of an old wall with round path. The communes, accompanied by two round towers, extend to the south, all surrounded by a large wooded park. Private property, it is not open to the public.

The first records of repairs date from 1406-1407, made by the chapter of Saint Vincent de Chalon. After the destruction caused by the Calvinists in 1592, the fief was sold to Louis de Rymon and François Royer. Louis de Rymon undertook an almost total reconstruction, adding four towers, gunboats and consolidating the walls. The estate then passed by inheritance to Claude de Hénin-Liétard, niece of Louis de Rymon, at the beginning of the seventeenth century.

In 1659 Gabriel de Hénin-Liétard, seigneur of the place and lieutenant of the king at Chalon, attended to Paris at the signing of the marriage of his uterine sister, Charlotte de Sainte-Croix, with Charles de Batz-Castelmore, known as d'Artagnan. The castle remained in the family until 1750, when it was sold to Claude-Philibert de La Vernette, whose descendants retained it for two centuries. A complete restoration was carried out around 1880.

In the 20th century, the castle changed its vocation: in 1973 it hosted the free school Saint-Louis Saint-Benoît, transferred from the Hautes-Alpes. In 2000, it was acquired by the Italian entrepreneur Luigi Castiglione. Despite these transformations, its medieval and Renaissance architecture, marked by defensive and residential elements, remains a testament to its turbulent history.

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