Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The temple dungeon, located in Chazey-Bons in the Ain, is a 13th century tower, sometimes called "donjon". This medieval monument, inscribed as historical monuments in 1973, stands at the top of a hill at the edge of two communes: Chazey-Bons (where the tower and a farm are located) and Belley (logis and dovecote). The site is referred to under various historical names, such as "The Building" or "The Temple of the Building", reflecting its toponymic evolution from the Cassini map to the cadastral archives of the 19th century.

The dungeon, reduced to a ground floor and a floor after the loss of a higher level in the 19th century, has marked defensive features: a third-point door to the west and four arches facing the cardinal points. Pierre de Rossillon, lord attested in 1330, is the oldest known owner. Between 1679 and 1789, the estate housed the visitandines of Belley, before being classified as a presumptive archaeological zone in 2005. The remaining part of the dungeon was protected in 1973.

The site illustrates medieval military architecture of Bugey, with an almost square tower, accessible by a vaulted door. Its history combines seigneurial occupation, religious use and architectural transformations. The sources, such as the Napoleonic cadastres or the works of Claude Guigue (1873), underline its heritage importance in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Today, privately owned, the dungeon remains a testimony of local feudal and religious dynamics.

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