Voluntary and community-led restoration of Thol Castle, a crumbling fortress in the Ain department, by a family that has owned it since 2019
Neuville-sur-Ain: a family alone saves the crumbling fortress of Thol
Acquired in 2019 by a passionate family, the ruins of Thol Castle in the Ain department unveiled their lime-based restoration site on 19 September: a £1.78 million project carried out without major patrons, association after association.
Editorial journal · Carte des Châteaux ·
A twenty-metre corridor walled up for centuries, cracked towers, a north-east corner threatening to collapse: this was the state in which a family took over the remains of Thol Castle in the Ain department in July 2019. Six years later, on 19 and 20 September 2026, the association they founded, Les Paladins de Thol, opened the site to the public to unveil a precise technique, lime-based restoration, and a much broader goal: to save single-handedly a 13th-century fortress that no one else could afford to buy.
In Neuville-sur-Ain, in the Ain department, the towers of Thol Castle still dominate the landscape despite centuries of neglect. But since 2019, it is no longer the elements alone that are shaping the site’s story: a family and a handful of volunteers have decided to take charge, stone by stone.
Unlike major heritage projects funded by state funds or national patrons, Thol is progressing at the pace of donations and voluntary work. A difference in scale that does not prevent the association from aiming, in the long term, for a medieval interpretation centre and an accessible route for all, including people with reduced mobility.
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