Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The fort house of Cursinges is a 14th century medieval building, located in the hamlet of Cursinges, on the town of Draillant (Haute-Savoie). Its ruins, inscribed in historical monuments since 1990, dominate a gorge near the Pass des Moises, testifying to its strategic role of surveillance. The building, of square plan (30 meters side) with corner turrets and floodable ditches, illustrates the Savoyard defensive architecture of the era.

In 1364, an act of inferodation was signed in his court, marking his attachment to local lords. In 1389, Pierre de Châtillon held her in the fiefdom of the Counts of Geneva, before she passed into the hands of the family of Rovorée (vassaux of the Counts of Savoie), then in Geneva-Lullin in 1568. Sold to Jean Noyel de Bellegarde, it was burned down and partially demolished in 1589, before being integrated in 1693 in the marquisat of Bellegarde with Cervens and Draillant.

The successive floods of the Redon, whose waters fed its ditches, accelerated its ruin: a tower collapsed, and the moats were reduced. Today, remains of walls and foundations remain hidden under vegetation. The strong house of Cursinges embodies the feudal history of Savoy, between seigneurial conflicts and military adaptations, before its decline in the seventeenth century.

Typical of Savoyard strong houses, it consisted of a crenelated enclosure (1.20 m thick), two houses, and two square towers surrounding two inner courtyards. Two drawbridges crossed his ditches, now gone. Its architecture reflects the defensive and residential needs of local lords between the 14th and 16th centuries.

External links