A little history of Bressieux castle
And also
The tops
Once upon a time
Men lived here since the Prehistory, but it was in 980 that first lords of Bressieux appeared: mighty lords, one of the oldest family in the area! In the 13th century, those lords raised a fortress made of red brick.
A rectangular castle with a main building flanked by a high keep (23 metres high), raised in 1277, then 2 smaller towers with crenelated and machicolation. One of those towers housed archives: the legend says they were filed away in 40 closets!
Another tower housed a big, big bell (300 livres, about 135 kilos!). To the East and West, two main buildings. In the middle, an inner courtyard with a bakery and a kitchen... all those buildings were surrounded by a big wall and 30 metres large moats! Oh, the perfect fortress...
Modern time
When the last member of Bressieux died out, it was Antoine de Grolée who owned the estate, by marriage: he only added mullioned windows to the medieval walls. Bressieux was raised to a barony in 1615, for Louis de Grolée...
After the Grolée, the Baume-Suze family turned up, who kept the castle until the middle of the 17th century. Then the castle was sold in 1780 for the first time of its history to a man who never came here, because of the Revolution!
A dark time, where our castle was abandoned. He totally went to ruin... until the city bought it in 1966, in order to restore it little by little. Nowadays, we can visit it and climb at the top of the keep: the view, is, whoa, amazing!