A little history of Chateaugay castle

The horrible Giac!

This big keep overlooks the small city... Châteaugay! Brrr, with its dark stones, it’s a pretty impressive castle... A pact with the Devil was signed here... with a horrible murder commited by the terrible Pierre de Giac, whose grand-father Pierre raised the castle...

The first mention of Châteaugay dates back to the 13th century: the land was called Vigosche. Gaillarde de Vigosche married Jean de Giac. Their son, Pierre de Giac, reraised the current fortress and named it Châteaugay.

Pierre, dukes of Burgundy's treasurer and king Charles VI’s councillor, was the grand-father of the other Pierre de Giac, the terrible murderer of his wife Jeanne de Naillac!

His ancestor raised a brand new fortress on the location of the old castle: the big castle, sitting on a rocky spur overlooking the river Limagne, defended Riom city.

Oh, there was a strong defensive system: a deep moat on one side, 4 draw bridges on the other side... and the big keep with 4 floors flanked by a huge rampart! Châteaugay was entirely raised with Volvic lava stone, directly brought from mountains by the lord’s serfs!

A castle from Auvergne

In short... After the terrible Pierre de Giac, the castle fell to one of his son, Louis. He was childless, so his sister Louise owned the estate and brought it to the La Queuille family when she married Jacques de La Queuille.

This family kept Châteaugay until the Revolution! During the French Revolution, Jean-Claude-Marie La Queuille was part of the Estates General in 1789: he represented Auvergne.

And he had his friend by his side, an Auvergnat too, La Fayette! The two guys often met in Châteaugay castle to talk about revolution and reforms... but suddenly, La Queuille emigrated and abandoned his castle to revolutionaries, who filled up moats and destroyed towers.

Finally, Châteaugay was owned by the city hall. Nowadays, it houses cultural exhibitions and on the ground floor, we can taste Châteaugay wines (king Henri IV already loved them).