Château

English translation

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History

Of the medieval castle there subsists in elevation the tower or keep which could date from the middle of the 12th century. Of rectangular plan composed of two levels with two barrel-vaulted rooms and a vast open volume where three levels, once floored, are distinguishable. The keep occupies the west corner of a courtyard bordered to the east by a building constructed towards the end of the 15th or the beginning of the 16th century which preserves several rooms vaulted on ribbed vaults and monumental fireplaces. Partially remodelled in the 18th and 19th centuries. To the north, neo-Gothic stables were built at the beginning of the 20th century. To the north of the castle rises the Château-Gaillard, comprising a 16th-century main dwelling and a 19th-century barn. In the 19th century, the Château-Gaillard was linked to the castle by a quincunx of lime trees, the principal remaining element of the creation of a vegetable garden. Fondremand is one of the oldest fortified sites in the department alongside Beaujeu and Oricourt. An archaeological study was conducted by Vianney Muller of the University of Lorraine, entitled "Archaeological study of the built structure of the seigneurial tower of Fondremand", a study carried out with the assistance of the North-East Archaeology Association and supported by the General Council of Haute-Saône and the DRAC Franche-Comté. The site is now better known, in particular the keep which was the subject of classification in 2015. The current tower was built around 1380 in the context of the renewal of tower-residences of the second half of the 14th century. Five phases are identified in the evolution of the building: the second at the end of the 15th century with the construction of the stair tower, the third covering the modern period, notably including a replacement of the roof structure, and the widening of certain openings. The fourth phase of the early 19th century sees an intervention on the walls and floors of the tower, and the last of the end of the same century, corresponding to the period of renewed interest in the Middle Ages which focuses on the renovation of the interior of the tower. The report specifies that no reliable evidence allows the tower to be linked to the attested references found in the archive documents from the end of the 13th century. In the current state of knowledge, it must be considered that these texts refer to an earlier building that has since disappeared. The numerous plans illustrating the argument make it possible to appreciate the distribution of volumes within this tower of uncommon dimensions (21m x 14m). The keep is a monument of undoubted interest because - archaisms in the construction of the keep testify to "non-linear evolution of styles and the persistence of ancient models or, if one prefers, the slow diffusion of formal innovations" such as the vaulting of the two first levels, the setting of fireplaces on the external walls and not on the partition walls, the presence of within-wall stairs... all singularities given the period of construction of the monument and which may have supported the original dating of this tower to the 12th century; - reasonably well-preserved interiors; used as a residence in its upper parts until the 16th century, the keep is probably subsequently abandoned as a dwelling in favour of the other buildings on the site. "The good conservation of the remains and the relatively limited occupation in the modern period thus provide a coherent and homogeneous building." This tower-residence teaches us "both a fine lesson on the distorting prism of written documentation and a relevant archaeological landmark on the ways of building by the intermediate nobility at the end of the Middle Ages." (sources: C. Piel, 2015, Muller, 2014)