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Origin and history

The Château du Villard, also known as Villar, is a 13th century castle located in the commune of La Chapelle-Saint-Martin en Savoie. Its ruins overlook a ravine 1.5 km west of the village, near the hamlet of Missieux. The site reveals traces of Gallo-Roman occupation, attested by fragments of pottery, tiles and pipes discovered in 1880. Originally owned by the Counts of Savoy, the fief was transferred in 1288 to Gilet de Briord in exchange for the Tour de Saint-André.

The seigneury of the Villard passed into the hands of several noble families: the Briord (until 1371), the Ameysin (by the marriage of Arthaude de Briord with Peter II of Ameysin), and the Luyrieu from 1409 onwards. In 1440 Louis de Luyrieu granted a postage confirmed by Louis I de Savoie. In the 16th century, the fief returned to the house of Savoy after the extinction of the lineage of the Grôlée, before being sold in 1645 to Jean-Baptiste Costa, whose family transformed him into a county in 1647.

In the 17th century, the Costa family built a modern castle on the old foundations, with square and round towers, losing its feudal appearance. The site was gradually abandoned: its stones were used to restore another home from 1929. The castle is also known as the birthplace of Alexis Costa (1778), son of Marquis Victor Costa, whose life Joseph de Maistre evoked in a speech. The present ruins recall its turbulent history, between medieval seigneury and aristocratic residence.

The excavations and archives reveal a continuous occupation since Antiquity, with major transformations in the thirteenth, seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. The castle illustrates the evolution of local authorities, from the Counts of Savoie to noble families such as the Costas, which marked the region until the 20th century. The ancient descriptions highlight its hybrid architecture, mixing medieval vestiges and classical developments, before its progressive degradation.

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