Château de la Comtesse

En un regard

Le château en bref

In Saint-Gervais-les-Bains, at the foot of Mont Blanc, the Château de la Comtesse is a fortified manor house built at the end of the 14th century, after the Faucigny was attached to Savoy. Tradition attributes its construction in 1378 to Nycod du Fresney, when the administrative authority moved from the former Château de Montjoie to this site, a crossroads of the routes from the Dauphiné to the Valais and from Geneva to Italy. The Dufresney family reinforced the building with towers in the 16th century and had its coat of arms carved on the entrance lintel in 1578. In 1740, Joseph Octenier bought the property; his family kept it until 1839, when Constance-Mélanie Octenier and her husband Élie-Marie Delachat acquired it. It then passed to the Béné family, and then to the Lionnet family, descendants of the Octeniers, who still live there. A residential wing was added on the east side. The château, its barn and its grounds have been listed in their entirety as monuments historiques since 27 December 2024.