Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

Château du Chaylard, also known as Château d'Aujac, is a medieval building built on a rocky spur at an altitude of 600 metres, overlooking the departmental D51 connecting Saint-Ambroix (Gard) to Villefort (Lozère). This strategic site controlled a major axis of North-South communication in the Middle Ages, the Cizarencha Valley. Prior to its construction, the site housed human occupations dating back to the Solutrean (22,000 years), then became a Gallic oppidum of the Arecomic Volques, before a Gallo-Roman occupation attested by artifacts.

Built at the hinge of the 12th and 13th centuries by the bishop of Uzes and Bernard of Anduze, the castle is mentioned in 1211 as Bastida nova quae vocatur Caslar. A symbol of betting (an alliance between ecclesiastical power and seigneurial power), he lost his influence between 1254 and 1308, a victim of the upheavals linked to the Albigesian Crusade and the royal expansion. In the 14th century, it passed into the hands of local lords, the Cubières, before regaining a temporary role during the Wars of Religion.

The site includes a complete castral ensemble: 12th century square dungeon, walls of enclosures pierced with murderers, stair tower, and a lower courtyard with chapel, dove and farm. These outbuildings, still in use, testify to the daily life around the castle. In 1609, he was erected as a baronnie for service to the king, then bought in 1794 by his tenants, the Rigal family, who still occupied him.

Ranked a Historic Monument in 1949, the castle benefits from restorations between 1998 and 2003, financed by Europe, the Region, and local associations. This work preserved the residential dungeon and the castral hamlet. For the past twenty years, the site has combined scientific research and tourist development, preserving its isolated identity and archaeological potential.

The castle appears in the film Michael Kohlhaas (2013) and is the subject of recent studies, as the book The Castle of Cheylard (2021), highlighting its role as a sentinel of the Cevennes. Its history reflects the political and social changes of the medieval Midi, between religious conflicts, royal power and seigneurial life.

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