Château de Montribloud

Last updated March 20, 2019

The Château de Montribloud is a former castle in the commune of Saint-André-de-Corcy in the Ain département of France. It was later transformed into a Renaissance château.

A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages by predominantly the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. This is distinct from a palace, which is not fortified; from a fortress, which was not always a residence for royalty or nobility; and from a fortified settlement, which was a public defence – though there are many similarities among these types of construction. Usage of the term has varied over time and has been applied to structures as diverse as hill forts and country houses. Over the approximately 900 years that castles were built, they took on a great many forms with many different features, although some, such as curtain walls and arrowslits, were commonplace.

The commune is a level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are analogous to civil townships and incorporated municipalities in the United States and Canada, Gemeinden in Germany or comuni in Italy. The United Kingdom has no exact equivalent, as communes resemble districts in urban areas, but are closer to parishes in rural areas where districts are much larger. Communes are based on historical geographic communities or villages and are vested with significant powers to manage the populations and land of the geographic area covered. The communes are the fourth-level administrative divisions of France.

Saint-André-de-Corcy is a commune in the Ain département in eastern France.

The Dombes is an area in southeastern France, once an independent municipality, formerly part of the province of Burgundy, and now a district comprised in the department of Ain, and bounded on the west by the Saône River, by the Rhône, on the east by the Ain and on the north by the district of Bresse.

Origins

The origin of Montribloud is uncertain. Some have derived the name of Montribloud from Mons terribilis (terrible mount) as the site of a battle in 197 BC between Clodius Albinus and Septimius Severus to become Roman Emperor. Others suggest a Germanic origin, citing ancient transcriptions referring to "Montribloz, Montriblou, Montriblout".

Clodius Albinus was a Roman usurper who was proclaimed emperor by the legions in Britain and Hispania after the murder of Pertinax in 193, and who proclaimed himself emperor again in 196, before his final defeat the following year.

Septimius Severus, also known as Severus, was Roman emperor from 193 to 211. He was born in Leptis Magna in the Roman province of Africa. As a young man he advanced through the cursus honorum—the customary succession of offices—under the reigns of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. Severus seized power after the death of Emperor Pertinax in 193 during the Year of the Five Emperors.

The castle in the Middle Ages

The first proven historical mention of Montribloud is dated to 1299. In 1313, Hugues Brun, canon of Lyon Cathedral, directed his heirs to found a monastery there. In fact, Humbert V, lord of Thoire-Villars, built a castle on a mound during the 1320s. On 21 February 1334, Humbert V paid homage to the Dauphin du Viennois for the "donjon" (keep) of Montribloud. Later, his son Humbert VI, did the same Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy in 1355, following the joining of Dauphiné to France.

Lyon Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church located on Place Saint-Jean in Lyon, France. The cathedral is dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, and is the seat of the Archbishop of Lyon.

Dauphin of France, originally Dauphin of Viennois, was the title given to the heir apparent to the throne of France from 1350 to 1791 and 1824 to 1830. The word dauphin is French for dolphin. At first the heirs were granted the County of Viennois (Dauphiné) to rule, but eventually only the title was granted.

A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word keep, but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residences, used as a refuge of last resort should the rest of the castle fall to an adversary. The first keeps were made of timber and formed a key part of the Motte-and-Bailey castles that emerged in Normandy and Anjou during the 10th century; the design spread to England as a result of the Norman invasion of 1066, and in turn spread into Wales during the second half of the 11th century and into Ireland in the 1170s. The Anglo-Normans and French rulers began to build stone keeps during the 10th and 11th centuries; these included Norman keeps, with a square or rectangular design, and circular shell keeps. Stone keeps carried considerable political as well as military importance and could take up to a decade or more to build.

On 31 October 1384, Humbert VII of Thoire-Villars exchanged the territory of Beauvoir en Bugey with Eudes de Villars, seigneur of Montellier, his cousin, for the seigneurie of Montribloud including the parishes of Saint-André-de-Corcy, Civrieux, Bussiges and Saint-Marcel-en-Dombes.

Civrieux Commune in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France

Civrieux is a commune in the Ain department in eastern France.

At the beginning of the 15th century, after the death without heirs of Eudes de Villars, Montribloud passed in 1418 to his grand-nephews, the sons of Jeanne de la Tour and of Jean de La Baume, Count of de Montrevel and Marshal of France. It remained in this powerful Baume-Montrevel family until Antoine, who sold it in 1590, to Martin and Jean de Covet, seigneurs of la Mure, rich merchant drapers originally from Bresse.

Jean de La Baume was a Marshal of France from 1422

Bresse is a former French province. It is located in the regions of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté of eastern France. The geographical term Bresse has two meanings: Bresse bourguignonne, which is situated in the east of the department of Saône-et-Loire, and Bresse, which is located in the department of Ain. The corresponding adjective is bressan, and the inhabitants are Bressans.

The Renaissance château

The Covets transformed the castle, surrounded with ditches, into a Renaissance residence with mullioned windows. On 8 August 1660, Antoine de Covet, marquis de Villars, had the barony of Montibould established in the county. Deeply in debt, his grandson Jean-Baptiste de Covet, was forced to sell the seigneurie of Montribloud to his creditor, Pierre Nicolau, alderman and treasurer of the town of Lyon. on 24 January 1754.

The château of the Nicolaus

Inheriting the château from his father, Christophe Nicolau engaged the celebrated Lyonnais urban architect Jean-Antoine Morand to rebuild the castle to his tastes. The mound was enlarged, the castle was given a neoclassical plan and a French formal garden was created. But, accused of having mixed his personal funds with those of the town of Lyon, he fled to Paris.

His son, Antoine Nicolau, gave it to the Lyonnais banker Melchior Bodin in 1826. His son, Alexandre Bodin (1804-1893), who became député for l'Ain and a member of the Corps Législatif under the Second Empire), transformed the appearance of the castle by introducing slate roofs, according to the fashion of the time, and remodelled the gardens in the English landscape style. The present château has changed very little since then and still belongs to the Bodin family.

The château in the 21st century

The château is normally closed to the public. During European Heritage Days, the Bodin family open the château to visitors.

Sources

Guigue, Marie-Claude, Topographie historique du département de l'Ain, 1873.

Related Research Articles

Eudes III, commonly known in English as Odo III, was duke of Burgundy between 1192 and 1218. Odo was the eldest son of duke Hugh III and his first wife Alice, daughter of Matthias I, Duke of Lorraine.

Ambérieux-en-Dombes is a commune in the department of Ain in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France.

Ars-sur-Formans is a commune in the Ain department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France.

Joyeux is a commune in the Ain department in eastern France.

Villars-les-Dombes is a commune in the Ain department in eastern France. Its people are known as Villardois.

The arrondissement of Bourg-en-Bresse is an arrondissement of France in the Ain department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Since the January 2017 reorganization of the arrondissements of Ain, it has 199 communes.

The County of Geneva, largely corresponding to the later Genevois province, originated in the tenth century, in the Burgundian Kingdom of Arles (Arelat) which fell to the Holy Roman Empire in 1032.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Belley–Ars is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church in France. Erected in the 5th century, the diocese was renamed in 1988 from the former Diocese of Belley to the Diocese of Belley–Ars. Coextensive with the civil department of Ain, in the Region of Rhône-Alpes, the diocese is a suffragan see of the Archdiocese of Lyon. The seat of the bishop is at Belley Cathedral. The current bishop is Guy Claude Bagnard, appointed in 1987.

The Château de Chalmazel, or Château des Talaru is a castle situated in the commune of Chalmazel, in the Loire département of France. It is located in the Haut-Forez, between the towns of Saint-Étienne and Thiers. Its name in medieval times was Saint-Jehan-des-Neiges. The castle dominates the valley of the Lignon and it was built to be an impregnable fortress on the instructions of the Count of Forez.

The Château de Lugny is a castle in the commune of Lugny in the Saône-et-Loire département of France.

The Château de Nangis, also called Château de La Motte Nangis, is a modernised castle located in the heart of the town of Nangis, in the Seine-et-Marne département of France. It protected the population of the "seigneurie" during the Hundred Years' War. Today, it houses the town hall.

The canton of Villars-les-Dombes is an administrative division in eastern France. At the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015, the canton was expanded from 10 to 25 communes:

Jean I of Chalon-Arlay (1258–1315) was a French nobleman. He was the son of Jean, Count of Chalon and Laure de Commercy, a couple who had thirty castles built on the Jurassian part of the county of Burgundy around their new seigneurie of Salins, including the Château d'Arlay. He was Seigneur of Arlay (1266–1315) and Viscount of Besançon (1295–1315).

Pierre de La Baume was a grand seigneur of Savoy and a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was a councillor of Charles III, Duke of Savoy, whom he represented at the Fifth Lateran Council (1512–1517). He was born at the château de Montrevel, in Bresse, Savoy, the second son of Gui de La Baume, seigneur of la Roche-du-Vanel, Mont-Saint-Sorlin, and Attalens, in Switzerland, and later count of Montrevel, a chevalier of the Order of the Golden Fleece and chevalier d'honneur to Margaret of Habsburg, dowager Duchess of Savoy, and Jeanne de Longuy. Pierre matriculated at the University of Dole, where he received his doctorate in theology, 1502.

Château de La Motte is a French castle that is also known as The castle of La Motte or just La Mothe. It is located in the 7th arrondissement of Lyon, on the left bank of the Rhône. It stands near the junction of two ancient roads of eastern and southern Lyon, on the border between the Dauphiné and Lyonnais. It occupies a small hill created in Gallo-Roman times for flood protection and because of good visibility.

The Abbey of Île Barbe was an Abbey built very early in the Christian era, on Île Barbe, outside of Lyon, France.

Henri de Villars otherwise Henri de Thoire-Villars was a 14th-century French prelate, latterly archbishop of Lyon.

Louis de Villars was a French prelate of the early 14th century. He was Archbishop of Lyon and Primate of Gaul and was the son of Humbert IV, sire of Thoire and Villars, and Beatrix of Burgundy. Louis Villars succèse to his great-uncle Henry I of Villars as prince-bishop of Lyon in 1301, and was himself succeeded by his nephew Henri II de Villars.

The Château de Poncin is a former castle, now a stately residence, in the commune of Poncin in the Ain département of France. The present château on the site was constructed from the mid-18th century; parts of the original castle remain.

References

External links

Coordinates: 45°55′01″N4°54′52″E / 45.91694°N 4.91444°E / 45.91694; 4.91444

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.