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During the twelfth century Divonne became the chief town of an important seigneury, located four kilometers from the town of Gex. It spread from the Mourex stone, an erratic block that can still be seen between the village of this name and Grilly on the south, and to Asyin on the north; on the west its limits went beyond the wooded ridges of the Jura. Initially it was owned by Walcher de Divonne and by his brother, Etienne de Gingins who, in 1123, gave their Bonmont land to monks who were living in this area. This donation constitutes the founding deed of the abbey built at that time and which remains are still impressive. During the thirteenth century Divonne passed on to the sirs of Gex, then to the Joinville, family of the famous chronicler. In 1356, its lord was Amé II de Joinville, whose daughter, Aymonette, married Jacques de Gingins. This is how the castle came back to the family of its initial owners. The Gingins, coming from the French-speaking Switzerland, were a powerful dynasty, which appeared with splendor at the Savoy court. Their descendant, Laurent de Gingins, was the last baron de Divonne of his lineage. He married Jeanne de Symond who, having lost her husband in 1653, remarried Gilbert de la Forest, Lord of Rumilly, and left him Divonne in 1660. This seigneury was answerable to the king of France. Thus Gilbert de la Forest's son, Albert Eugène, his father's heir, leaving the state of the House of Savoy to settle in Divonne, became a French subject, and his descendants after him. The old medieval castle, powerfully fortified, was surrounded with a wall supported by several round towers. During the eighteenth century a new castle built by Claude Antoine de la Forest, count de Divonne, replaced the old buildings which disappeared almost completely during the nineteenth century. To day there remains only an ancient postern from the twelfth century. First barony of the Gex district, Divonne was the chief town of a wide territory. The French Revolution deprived its lords of almost all their belongings. During the Restoration, Louis de la Forest Divonne recovered part of his property and his woods in the Jura which constituted the inalienable ownership set up for him when he was appointed hereditary Peer of France by King Charles the tenth in 1827.
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