The castle de la Forest, also named "Grande Forest", stands on a spur of the "Mont du Chat", at the foot of beech and spruce forests which probably are at the origin of its name. You reach it, coming from Chevelu, by the main road, turning left after the "chat" tunnel which links the "Aix-les-Bains" district to the "Petit Bugey". Located six kilometers from the small town of Yenne, the castle is quite typical of military architecture of the end thirteenth and the beginning of the fourteenth centuries. Solidly seated on a firm terrace, it is built on a square layout and comprises four corner towers, plus a fifth in the middle of the west façade which protects the entrance; the narrow access door with a gothic arch and the remains of a portcullis are still visible. From one tower to the next one, on this side, a balcony has been built last century to replace the old roughcast, or hourdis, wooden balcony formerly attached at the level of the crenels to shoot on the walls in case of a siege.  The castle consists of a ground floor, or bottom, and of one storey. A chapel built outside, and leaning on the south wall, is now a cowshed. The five towers which tops have been cut off during the Revolution on the order of the Convention representative in Savoy, were previously in pepperpot with machicolation, protected in projecting part by barbicans, or pillboxes, forming an enclosure. Several windows are with transoms and mullions; on top of one of them the family's arms are sculptured. A path leads to the near "Petite Forest", made of a square great tower, standing on a mount, and of which only the foundations remain. Near the great tower, still stands some ruined wall sections and two barns the base of which comprises gothic elements, particularly at the door level. They probably come from the ancient castle which is almost completely gone. The great tower still has a window with transoms and mullions. The la Forest castle remained in the family until the middle of the seventeenth century. It left it when Isabeau de la Forest, last of her family branch, married, and it passed on to her husband, Pierre de Grenaud. During the French Revolution it was still the property of their descendant, Marie Victoire de Grenaud, widow of Count de Chabod Saint Maurice. Her name having been deleted from the list of the "émigrés" in the year XI, she obtained the lifting of the sequestration, and sold la Forest to Mr. Million-Rousseau who was farming the land
The Fondation du Patrimoine unveiled the aid of the Stéphane Bern Mission granted to the Château de la Grande Forest as a contribution to its renovation
 
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The Château de la Grande Forest in Saint-Jean-de-Chevelu a restoration for a better promotion 2021 Loto Du Patrimoine mesh projects Supported by the Bern Mission
Access to the Savoie News videosAccess to the Stéphane Bern mission site
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