Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Château de la Roche du Roi, located in Aix-les-Bains en Savoie, was built between 1897 and 1900 by architect Jules Pin (older) for Jean Archipretre-Dugit, manager of a hotel and administrator of the local casino. The site, entrusted to the company Léon Grosse, cost 496,000 francs at the time. The unique architectural style combines Baroque, Renaissance and Art Nouveau influences, with a limestone façade of Lens and a variety of carved decorations. The castle was originally named villa of the King's Rock, but popular use attributed it the title of castle.

Ranked a Historic Monument in 1986 after an attempt to purchase and dismantle a foreigner in 1982, the castle experienced a period of decline from 1998 under the property of Eberhardt Zerrweck. Abandoned, squatted and damaged by a storm in 2003, he was subject to a peril order. In 2007, an expropriation procedure was initiated against the owner, refusing any renovation. After a judicial battle, the city of Aix-les-Bains acquired it in 2015 for €485,000, before reselling it to an industrialist, Pedro Victor Asensio-Pagan, who began restoration work from 2016.

The castle is distinguished by its central dungeon with a polygonal arrow, its terraces supported by arches in the middle of the hangar, and an art nouveau style wrought iron staircase of honour. The interiors, once richly decorated with panelling, stucco and mosaics, were largely vandalized. The estate includes an abandoned garden, a pond and a pergola, witnesses to its past. Today, the project aims to make it a private cultural centre, marking a possible renaissance for this Savoyard architectural gem.

The castle was sponsored by Jean Archiprieste-Dugit, a local figure linked to the hotel and casinos of Aix-les-Bains, a thriving economic sector at the Belle Époque. Returned quickly to Henri Bloch and Adolphe Levy, he changed hands several times in the 20th century. Gilbert Duranton, owner in the 1960s, tried unsuccessfully to install a discotheque. Its history reflects the hazards of heritage preservation in the face of economic challenges and human neglect.

The elements protected since 1986 include facades, roofs, terraces, the staircase with its wrought iron ramp, as well as interior rooms and their décor. The construction used local materials such as Lens limestone for trimmings and Villebois limestone for bases. The site, on a steep slope, required extensive earthworks, including a semicircular platform supported by vaults, partially covered with the rubble of the old Cercle theatre.

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