The Château des Magnans, built by Louis Fortoul, founder of Las Fabricas de Francia in Guadalajara, is located on the mountainside, in the place called Les Magnans, a reminder of the silkworm farming that brought prosperity to the village in the 18th century.
Description
The spectacular construction site began in 1903 and continued until 1914, requiring the intervention of numerous workers, including village residents, who were involved in the construction once the field work was completed.
For this exceptional architectural program, the architect Ramelli sacrifices to archaeological pastiche. Erected on a powerful base of rusticated rubble, the imposing white silhouette, reminiscent of the Palace of Monaco and certain stately palaces in Italian cities (one also thinks of the Neuschwanstein Castle of Ludwig II of Bavaria), concentrates on the southern elevation all the elements of a fantasy Gothic architecture: square tower surmounted by a belvedere, gallery supported by false machicolations, crenellated turret and trilobed bays, twinned or tripled under molded relieving arches.
A monumental double exterior staircase, with straight flights and openwork railings, sets the scene for the main entrance. More modest and picturesque in a different way, the access to the farmhouse located at the entrance to the castle, on the right, is treated in rockery (imitation of branches made of cement), combining the same technique with the garden furniture on the terrace.
Inside, a monumental glass roof illuminates the stairwell. A neo-Gothic work by Grenoble-born glass artist Louis Balmet, it fits into the architectural program's archaeological pastiche logic.
The Château des Magnans has been listed in the supplementary inventory of Historic Monuments since 1987.