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Origin and history

Mionnaz Fort House is a seigneurial house built in the early 14th century, in the hamlet of Mionnaz, on the town of Menthonnex-sous-Clermont (Haute-Savoie). It was the centre of the local seigneury and controlled the strategic road linking Chambéry to Geneva via Rumilly and Clermont. Its architecture reflects its defensive and residential role, with a body of quadrangular houses and fortified elements such as round towers and a wall of enclosure.

As early as 1278, the site was mentioned as the property of a Damoiseau, then moved to the family of Mionnaz in the 14th century. In the 15th century, it belongs to Pierre de Mionnaz, squire and master of the hotel of Prince Jean de Savoie. By marriage, she changed her hands in 1543 (Family of Montfort), in 1730 (Chabod de Saint-Maurice), and in 1835 (Family of Grenaud). These transmissions illustrate its importance in Savoyard nobility networks.

The strong house is characterized by a high wall of enclosure pierced with doors surmounted by mâchicoulis (of which only the consoles remain), two round towers surrounding the west wall, and a two-storey house body. A dendrochronology of the soles dates their slaughter between 1325 and 1335. Inside, a box chimney and a probable chapel testify to its residential and seigneurial use. A central round tower, today aladen, housed a shell staircase.

Strategically placed on a hillside on the right bank of the Morge, the strong house monitored the movements between the Savoyard valleys and Geneva. Its architecture combines defensive functions (tours, enclosures) and residential functions (large snout windows, vegetable garden in a bay), typical of the strong houses of the local aristocracy in the Middle Ages.

The written and archaeological sources (including the works of Christian Regat, François Aubert and Georges Chapier) underline his role in the feudal history of Savoy, between territorial control and seigneurial life. Its evolution reflects the changes of the regional elites, from Mionnaz to Grenaud, over more than five centuries.

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