Demptézieu Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Demptézieu Castle, also known as Danthesieu, stands in the hamlet of the same name south of Saint-Savin, in the north of the Isère department. It was originally a powerful feudal stronghold: some fifteen towers linked by a curtain wall about 800 metres in circuit and 1.30 metres thick, which ran down to the former seigneurial chapel that later became the parish church. Hugues de Demptézieu, the first known lord of the castle, appears between 1075 and 1080. In 1251, rights over the site were ceded to Peter of Savoy, and the castle served as a bargaining chip in treaties between the Dauphiné and Savoy. Remodelled in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, it retains a wing and a hexagonal tower with a spiral staircase and ornate windows, listed in 1954. Owned by the commune since 1904, it is currently undergoing restoration.