Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The castle of Béost, located in Vonnas in the Ain, has its origins in the 13th century with the knights of Béost, vassals of the Counts of Savoie. Founded around 1250, it became the seat of a barony among six local fiefs. Today, only the areas of Beost and Epeyssolles remain of this feudal era. The descendants of Jérôme Audras de Béost, notables and mayors of Vonnas, marked local history by transforming the castle into a cossue residence between the 17th and 20th centuries.

The current estate, listed as historical monuments in 2016, includes an 18th- to 19th-century square house, a 16th-century chapel with allegorical paintings, and a 19th-century greenhouse. The 30-hectare park, redesigned between 1770 and the 19th century, houses exotic species such as redwoods or cedars from Lebanon. The archives reveal three plans showing the evolution of the route, moving from a horse iron to a set connected to the commons.

Agricultural buildings, organized around a central courtyard, include a dovecote, a barn, and a barn. The chapel, perhaps the oldest part, precedes the present castle, built on the ruins of a medieval strong house. The large living room, with its woodwork and marquetry parquet, bears witness to the fascist of the Audras, Barons of the Parliament of Dombes. The estate remains owned by the descendants of this family.

The 2016 inscription covers the entire park (ways, canal, pond), the chapel, the greenhouse, as well as the facades and roofs of the castle and its outbuildings. This site illustrates the architectural and landscape evolution of a seigneurial estate, from medieval origins to its peak in the 18th and 19th centuries.

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