Château d'Iserand

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Château d'Iserand stands in ruins on a rocky promontory between Vion and Sécheras, in Ardèche, overlooking the Rhône valley. A fortress is recorded there as early as 1153, then owned by the bishops of Vienne. The estate later passed to the Tournon family, before being held successively by the Lévis-Ventadour and then the Rohan-Soubise families. In 1585, during the Wars of Religion, the Huguenot captain Clavel seized the castle through the treachery of a servant who opened a postern gate to him; the defenders were massacred and the fortress set on fire. The castle was sold in 1785 to the Viscount of Monteils, before becoming the property of the commune of Sécheras during the Revolution. The complex occupied an entire hill, organised into a castral village where the inhabitants lived and a seigneurial castle at the tip of the promontory, protected by steep cliffs and by torrents serving as natural moats. The remains include a main residential building (corps de logis), a covered yard for weapons training, oubliettes and an eastern square tower that made it possible to watch over the Rhône and to receive warning signals from the lords of Serves. For lack of regular maintenance, vegetation has overrun the site and several walls have collapsed. The castle can be reached by a hiking trail from the Vion campsite.