Castle of Perugia en Savoie

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Origin and history

The castle of Perugia is an ancient fortified house built in the 13th century in the municipality of Montmélian, Savoie. Dominating the village of Arbin from a high terrace, it was the heart of the seigneury of La Perugia and Chamousset during the Middle Ages. Its medieval architecture, now extinct, initially consisted of four bodies of houses flanked by towers, as evidenced by an engraving of 1675. The site was lined with walls extending to the slopes of the mountain, with a well and a cistern in the courtyard.

In 1274, Guillaume de Bertrand, a noble native of Moutiers, settled in Montmélian. His son, Jean de Bertrand, became in 1306 the first lord of La Perugia and Chamousset, confirming the possession of the castle in 1323. The site hosts diplomatic events, such as the meeting of the deputies of Bern, Fribourg or Geneva in 1471, and the court of Savoie in 1486. Over the centuries, the castle was transformed: batteries were installed there during the seats of Montmélian (notably in 1600), before its sale in 1810 by François-Joseph de La Peruise to Jean-Claude Chapperon.

In the 19th century, the medieval castle gave way to a quadrangular house built in 1852 by lawyer Alexis Falcoz, retaining only remains of the walls of the enclosure. The estate, passed into the hands of the Tardy and Billoud families (acquisition in 1933), illustrates the evolution of a seigneurial fortress in bourgeois residence. The written sources and oral tradition evoke an underground network linking the castle to the Fort de Montmélian, although this remains unconfirmed.

The site, today private, preserves traces of its medieval past despite the transformations. The engraving of Theatrum Sabaudiæ (1675) and the family archives of Bertrand document its strategic and social importance, between seigneurial power, military conflicts and adaptation to modern residential uses. Recent searches or studies are not mentioned in available sources.

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