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Origin and history

The Château de Rougemont, mentioned from the Middle Ages under the name of Rogemont, is a 12th century fortress today in ruins, located in Aranc (Ain). Built on a predominance overlooking the eponymous hamlet, it belonged to the seigneury of Rougemont in the former Bugey province, then dependent on the Savoy states. The Treaty of Lyon (1601) attached the Bugey — and thus Rougemont — to the Kingdom of France under Henry IV. The strategic site was lined with two enclosures and included a tower, as evidenced by the remains still visible.

The seigneury of Rougemont was first owned by the family of Rougemont (1150–1613), the successive vassal of the Coligny, Thoire-Villars and Savoie. Guillaume de Rougemont, a knight named in 1150, was the first known lord. In 1366, Amé de Rougemont obtained the right to exercise medium and low justice on his lands. The seigneury then passed to the Grenaud (1613–10), then to the Montillet de Grenaud (1710–95). Jean de Grenaud, first post-1601 owner, then reports to the Duchy of Burgundy. His descendant, Joseph, was annobli marquis de Rougemont by Louis XIV in 1696.

In the 18th century, the castle deteriorated: in 1776, Louis Honoré de Montillet de Grenaud, last Marquis, reported theft of stones and wood by local workers to renovate a nearby strong house. The French Revolution ended its ruin, the estate being alienated as a national good. The current remains — east wall, circular excavation of a tower, west vault — suggest a 1700 m2 building with chapel, seigneurial apartments and 24 houses for staff.

The archives reveal a defensive and residential architecture: two floors, spiral staircase in the tower (repaired in 1626), fireplaces and archive cabinet. The chapel, on the second floor, communicated with the apartments. The work of 1626, led by the masons Pierre Berlioz and Jacquemin Tillier, confirms the presence of a house body and a 7-foot thick wall. The cadastral plan of 1838 attests two more towers.

In the 21st century, a homonymous family of former lords, Rougemont de Bourg-en-Bresse, acquired the ruins from the perspective of restoration. The site, classified as a local heritage, illustrates the political changes of Bugey — from Savoy to France — and the architectural evolution of medieval fortresses into seigneurial houses of Ancien Régime.

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