Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Allymes Castle is an ancient building built around 1310 by John II, a dolphin of Vienna, in response to the Delphino-Savoyard War. Originally made of land and wood, it was rebuilt in stone after the truce of 1335, then ceded to the Count of Savoy. His master masons, Peronnet and Guillemet d'Hières, made it a strategic fortress at the gates of the independent Savoy.

In 1354, Count Amédée VI de Savoie inferred the castle to his treasurer Nicod François for 2,000 florins. In 1477 the seigneury passed to the family of Lucinge by marriage, and was partially demolished in 1557 after a plot against Lyon. The Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis (1559) allows its restoration with a Renaissance home around 1565.

In the 17th century, René de Lucinge, Savoyard refugee ambassador to France, negotiated the Treaty of Lyon (1601) there before taking the oath to Henri IV. The castle, poorly maintained, escapes the Revolution. Restored in the 19th century by Adolphe de Tricaud, it is classified as a historic monument in 1960 and has been owned since 1984 by the city of Ambérieu-en-Bugey.

Architecturally, the castle combines a 14th-century Romanesque dungeon, a taluted cylindrical tower, and a 16th-century Gothic house with a walnut staircase. Its courtines, round path and barbacan were reconstructed in the 19th century. The site, searched since the 1960s, offers an exceptional view of the Bresse and the Dombes.

Fully protected (except the southern barn), it houses exhibitions on René de Lucinge and local history. Managed by the association Les Amis du Château des Allymes, it symbolizes the delphino-savoyard conflicts and the evolution of military architecture from the Middle Ages to the modern era.

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