Château de la Cour

En un regard

Le château en bref

On the heights of Annecy-le-Vieux, the Château de la Cour is a former fortified manor house first mentioned at the beginning of the 15th century. For more than three centuries it belonged to the branch known as "La Balme" of the de Menthon family. In the 17th century, François de Menthon and then his widow had its defences repaired; their son Jean-Baptiste subsequently transformed the residence into a fashionable home, restored the towers, rebuilt a fountain and created a French formal garden with a small orangery. The château is laid out around an inner courtyard, reached through a gateway to the east; the main building opens to the south onto a terrace and abuts a large square tower to the west. In 1898 the estate passed to Louis Machard de Chillaz, and it then became the residence of the de Guigné family, who added a central projecting section and a square tower in a medieval style at the beginning of the 20th century. Anne de Guigné, declared venerable by the Catholic Church in 1990, grew up there. The house remains a private property that is not open to visitors.