Château de Hautes Gréolières

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Château de Hautes Gréolières, also referred to as the fortified castle known as Château de Hautes Gréolières, is a ruined castle in the commune of Gréolières, in the Alpes-Maritimes. Built around 1230 on the initiative of the Count of Provence, it was intended to keep watch over the Château de Basses Gréolières lying below it, and gave rise to a new fief known as «Gréolières Hautes». The fortress was enlarged and remodelled in the second half of the 14th century, before being abandoned in the first half of the 15th century. Originally, the castle consisted of a square keep measuring about 6.90 metres per side, with walls more than two metres thick, to which a polygonal curtain wall pierced with loopholes and reinforced with fausses-braies was later added. Access was by a ramp on the south-east side, reworked around 1400. Built of limestone rubble, the structure incorporates the remains of an earlier residential building. An archaeological excavation uncovered the foundations of the original keep. The site is now recorded in the general inventory of the cultural heritage of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region (reference IA00128128). Privately owned, the castle is in a poor state of preservation despite partial restoration work.