En un regard
Le château en bref
On a rocky hill in Francheville, west of Lyon, stand the ruins of the Old Castle, one of the strongholds the Church of Lyon raised to hold its lands. It was founded in the last quarter of the 12th century by Archbishop Renaud de Forez.
The castle follows a centred plan: a polygonal enclosure in granite, whose thick walls of one to two metres rise six to eight metres on the courtyard side and stand some ten metres above the exterior, surrounds a keep that is now ruined to two-thirds of its height. A window and a brick niche are still visible.
In 1476, Charles de Bourbon appointed Guillaume de Quincampoix as châtelain there, but as early as 1514 a document describes the building as very dilapidated. A demolition request was rejected in 1884. The ruins have been listed as a monument historique since 12 July 1982, and consolidation work on the rock was begun from 1990 onwards.