Château de Feissons en Savoie

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Origin and history

The castle of Feissons, also called Feissons-sous-Briançon, is an ancient fortified house built in the 13th century in the heart of the eponymous seigneury. Located on a steep mound at Feissons-sur-Isère (Savoie), it was originally part of the Viscounts of Briançon, a powerful family of Tarentaise attested as early as 900. According to legend, a first castle, destroyed in 1082 by Humbert II de Savoie to suppress acts of banditry, preceded the present fortress. The site was then infused with several lines, including the Duyn (Teachers of Val-d.

The fortress played a strategic role in the Franco-Savoyard conflicts: taken in 1536 by François I during the Milanese war, and in 1600 by Henri IV, it was dismantled after this second occupation. In 1680, the seigneury was erected as a county for the benefit of Charles-Victor-Joseph de Saint-Thomas, before being infused with the inhabitants of Feissons in 1700. The castle, now in ruins, preserved a 26-metre (XIIIth century) cylindrical dungeon, a 12-metre wide ditch, and a Renaissance house flanked by turrets, illustrating its evolution between seigneurial manor and stronghold.

The architect Étienne-Louis Borrel (XIXth century) described a hybrid building, both manorhouse and castle fort, adapted to its natural site. The dungeon, which was 2.80 metres thick at its base, was home to domestic facilities (carried out, latrines) and a crenellated platform. The remains, properties of the inhabitants since 1700, recall the power struggles in Tarentaise and medieval military architecture, marked by transformations related to the defensive and residential needs of the local lords.

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