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Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

Bouligneux Castle is an old strong house built at the beginning of the 14th century, then profoundly redesigned in the late 16th or early 17th century. It was the centre of the seigneury of Bouligneux and a mandation of Bresse, located on the banks of a pond in the present department of Ain. Its architecture, typical of the fortified houses of Dombes and Bugey, combines a quadrangular brick enclosure flanked by four round towers (including a dungeon) and beagle adapted to firearms. A drawbridge used to cross the moat fed by the pond.

The seigneury of Bouligneux was first owned by the family of La Palu from 1306, when Girard de La Palu, knight and lord of Varambon, obtained permission to build a strong house there subject to the sovereignty of the Count of Savoie. Hugues de La Palu completed the castle around 1337, founding the branch of the Bouligneux, extinguished in 1413 with Anne de La Palu. The seigneury then passed to the eldest branch of La Palu, then by successive alliances and inheritances to the Charny, the Rye, and the La Palu de Varax until the 17th century. In 1721, Paul-François Le Hardi sold the estate to Agésilas-Gaston de Grossole, Marquis de Flamarens, whose family kept it until the Revolution.

During the French Revolution, the castle escaped destruction thanks to the intervention of the municipality of Bouligneux, which turned it into a farm. The circular tower, a seigneurial symbol, is however partially demolished. The site was listed as a historical monument in 1926 for its medieval architecture and Renaissance renovations. It illustrates the evolution of fortified houses in Bresse, between defensive function and seigneurial residence.

The castle is distinguished by its square enclosure, its four corner towers connected by courtines, and its subsequent developments (additional wings, arcade gallery). The pond, a strategic and landscaped element, always encases the monument. After the Revolution, it became the property of the Count of Reséguier, a member of the National Assembly, marking his anchor in local political history.

Historical sources mention several key actors, including Vaucher de Commarrain (first seigneur attested in 1280), Henri de Villars (archbishop of Lyon and owner in 1290), and the La Palu, the noble family that shaped the castle over four centuries. The seigneurial exchanges, such as that of 1435 between François de La Palu and Marguerite de Charny, reflect the matrimonial and territorial strategies of Savoyard and Burgundy aristocracy.

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