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Origin and history

The castle of Murol, often called Château de la Tour Fondue, is a 14th century castle located in Saint-Amant-Tallende, in the Puy-de-Dôme, 15 km from Clermont-Ferrand. It must not be confused with the old castle of Saint-Amant, dated the 15th century and having welcomed Queen Margot. The name of the fortress appeared in the archives as early as the 13th century, and the fortified house entered the family of Murol in 1347, on the occasion of the wedding of Randonne de Panhac and d'Amblard de Murol.

In 1629, the castle was acquired by Annet Bouchard, who restored it and beautified it. He then passed to the Cousin de La Tour Fondue in 1735, after Gabrielle Bouchard's marriage with Claude de Cousin. In the 19th century, Anatole de la Tour Fondue, guided by architect Louis-Clémentin Bruyère, pupil of Viollet-le-Duc, radically transformed the fortified house into a neo-medieval castle. Ruined by this work, he went into exile in 1908, and his daughters gave up the castle in 1921 to their cousins René and Edmond Giscard, whose family still owned it.

The castle, composed of three bodies of buildings surrounding an inner courtyard, includes a Romanesque chapel decorated with frescoes dating from the twelfth to the eighteenth centuries. The 19th century restoration adds decorative elements such as gargoyles, turrets and a walkway decorated with coats of arms. The chapel, which served as a parish church until the 19th century, houses frescoes restored between 1989 and 1990. The castle was listed as a historical monument in 1999 for its architectural and decorative elements, including the chapel, the knights' gallery and the terraced gardens.

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