Cruseilles Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

The comital castle of Cruseilles once overlooked the road to Geneva and the valleys of the Semine and the Usses. The fief first belonged to a family of Cruseilles, attested at the beginning of the 12th century, before passing to the counts of Genevois, who granted the inhabitants franchises in 1282. At the beginning of the 14th century, Agnès de Chalon received it as security for her dowry; it then returned to Hugues de Genève. In 1411, the township counted one hundred and forty hearths, and the castle was granted in fief to Mermet Métral. Besieged and burnt by the Genevois in 1532, it was raised to a marquisate in 1681 for Jean-François Angot de Bonnières. The castle, square in plan and pierced by three gates, was defended by a keep straddling the curtain wall, which commanded the entrance and was separated from the township by a thick wall; a map of 1730 preserves its layout. Today only the remains of the southern curtain wall and of the keep survive, on private land; a communal board presents the history of the site.