Château de Salavas

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Château de Salavas stands on a rocky spur overlooking the right bank of the Ardèche, guarding the ford and the road linking Vallon-Pont-d'Arc to Saint-Ambroix and Alès. Its oldest part is thought to date back to the 12th century; the site is mentioned as early as 1213 in a parchment recording a donation by Bernard de Ferreyrolles. The castle first belonged to the La Gorce family, of whom Giraud de La Gorce paid homage to the lord of Joyeuse between 1360 and 1380. In 1581, Mathieu Merle, a captain of light cavalry, acquired the lordships of La Gorce and Salavas; his descendant Hérail de Merle, Baron of La Gorce and Salavas, died in 1622, before the castle was plundered and destroyed in 1628 by the Protestant troops of the Duke of Rohan. The lordship remained in the Merle family until 1842, when Joachim-Édouard de Merle sold it to Alexandre-François Ollier. Today only ruined sections of wall survive, merged into the rock. The medieval site, bought back by the municipality of Salavas, was listed as a historic monument (inscription) by decree of 14 May 1981.