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Origin and history

The castle of Saint-Innocent, also called the fort house of the Rupelle, was built in the 14th century as the center of the seigneury of Saint-Innocent. Raised in barony in 1662 and then in marquisat in 1682, he was originally a member of the Orlyé family, attested as early as 1348. The seigneury temporarily changed hands in 1398, when Arthaud d'Orlyé gave it to Humbert de Seyssel d'Aix, before returning to the d'Orlyé by the marriage of Amédée d'Orlyé with Colette d'Ameysin in 1385. The castle, strategically located 120 metres above Lake Bourget, controlled the road between Chambéry, Aix-les-Bains, Lyon and Seyssel.

During the French Revolution, tensions between the villagers and the Marquis de Saint-Innocent, accused of having set an excessive price for the redemption of feudal rights (edit of 1771), led to his exile. The furniture was sold at auction, the entrance turrets destroyed, and the estate declared national. Sold successively to Joseph Comte and later to the surgeon Moreau, he was finally acquired in 1837 by Baron Charles-Artus de Silans, who restored him and built a park there, saving the building from a prolonged abandonment.

Architecturally, the castle consists of a quadrangular tower-residence dated from 1314, partially collapsed in the 18th century after a storm, and a house of the 16th century renovated in the following centuries. The three-storey tower features ogival windows and spirals, while the house retains Renaissance elements. A wall of the farm body, assembled with pure lime without sand, could date back to Roman times, testifying to an ancient occupation of the site.

The Orlyé family kept the castle until the Revolution, despite episodes of complex transmission. After 1837, the estate passed to the descendants of the Baron of Silans, the Counts of the Rupelle, a family anobligated in 1612. Today, the castle remains a private property, marking the historical landscape of Savoy with its mix of medieval, classical and romantic heritages.

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