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Origin and history

The Château de Cornillon, located in Saint-Paul-en-Cornillon (Loire, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes), finds its origins in the 11th century, when its first walls were erected on a rock overlooking the Loire. This strategic site, controlling a meander of the river, was initially fortified by the Beaudiner family, then passed to the Poitiers in the 13th century via the marriage of Luce de Beaudiner with Guillaume I of Poitiers. The Bastet of Crussol inherited it in the 14th century before ceding it to the lords of Laire, the Forezians, who partially rebuilt it.

In the 16th century, the castle entered the heritage of the Lévis-Ventadour through the union of Suzanne de Laire with Gilbert II de Lévis in 1538. Around 1630 it was sold to Jean de Fay de Pollin, then in 1677 to the Marquis Charles-Achille de Nerestang, whose son, Louis-Achille, abused the title of Duke of Gadagne. The estate changed hands again in the seventeenth century: acquired by the Jacquier (secretaries of the king), it passed by alliance to the Grimod Bénéon of Riverie, before being sold in 1788 to Clement Palle, last lord of Cornillon. The Revolution marked a turning point, with the sale of the castle in 1791 to Jean-Amand Bayon, a ribbon maker, whose family kept it until 1885.

Architecturally, the medieval castle integrates defensive elements (created enclosure, dungeon, latrines) and Renaissance/XVIIth century layouts (scenes with palm core screws, French ceilings, carved fireplaces). The site also includes commons with forge and dovecotes, as well as a garden. Ranked a Historic Monument in 2007, it illustrates the evolution of a feudal fortress as a seigneurial residence, linked to the history of the large families of the Forezian and Victorian.

The village of Cornillon, nestled around the castle, formed with Saint-Paul (in the meander of the Loire) a commune marked by its industrial heritage (metallurgy, ribbonry) and its medieval heritage. The toponym Cornillon (Korn Gaulish, "high place") reflects its strategic position. Today the site offers a panorama of the gorges of the Loire and Pilat, while maintaining traces of its central role in the seigneurial rivalries between Forez and Vivarais.

The archaeological and textual sources (charts of Beaudiner, archives of Lévis-Ventadour) confirm the importance of the castle as a political and military hub. The franchises granted in 1240 by Guillaume I of Beaudiner to Saint-Paul and Cornillon, under the authority of Count Guy IV, underline his anchoring in the feudal structures of the Forez. The transformation of the castle in the 17th century, with its interior decorations (frescoes, woodwork), reflects the adaptation of the local elites to the new standards of comfort of the modern era.

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