Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

Bostfranchet Castle, also known as Beaufranchet Castle, is a fortified building located in Saillant, Puy-de-Dôme. Its name comes from "bost" (wood) and "francha" (free of charge), reflecting its medieval origin. In the 12th century, occupied by the Pelet family, native to Narbonnais, it became the cradle of the Beaufranchet lineage. A gentilhommière is reinforced under Charles I, Duke of Bourbon and Auvergne, with walls, towers, niches and ditches.

The building consisted of two floors, two towers and two scalds on the east wall. The ground floor housed a vaulted cellar in the West and a kitchen in the East, while the noble floor consisted of two rooms with fireplaces, including one decorated with a coat of arms now gone. In 1636 Antoine de Beaufranchet, married to Bonne Rochette, sold the castle in 1641 to Jean Calemard, prosecutor at Viverols, for 12,000 pounds. The property then passes to the family of the Wheel until the Revolution, during which time it is confiscated and returned.

In the 19th century, the castle changed hands several times. In 1805, Pierre Pourrat-Mathias, a lawyer and mayor of Ambert, became his owner before partially selling him in 1821. Jean Missonnier acquired most of the land in 1826 and eventually dismantled the castle for its stones between 1883 and 1894. In 1895, the descendants of Beaufranchet bought the ruins and adjacent farm, which they kept until 2020. Today, there is only one ruined tower and a farm built at the site of the old castle.

Among the notable remains, an old stone well in the central courtyard still bears traces of the coat of arms of the Beaufranchet family. The site thus preserves a fragmentary memory of its medieval past and its role in local history, notably as the cradle of General Desaix, descendant of Amable de Beaufranchet. The ancient archives and photographs, like those of Felix Thiollier (1860-1870), attest to his lost architecture.

External links