Step 9
Entrance to the castle area
and the stables
Two recently installed stone columns highlight the entrance to the castle area, since the old door has been moved to the Ste-Barbe chapel. To the left of the door, were the stables and the farrier, dating from 1440, the only buildings still in existence after the gradual destruction of the “pearl of the Jura”. Its framework, in chestnut has the shape of a boat hull, formerly covered with glazed tiles.
Near the stables was the lead tower, built by Jean de Chalon and preserved in the 15th century by the Prince of Orange during the reconstruction of the palace. Covered in lead tiles, it was 25m high.
Ancienne porte du château
Tour de plomb
charpente des écuries datant du 15e siècle
Louis de Chalon’s immense treasure was carefully hidden in a recess at the back of the tower and coveted by his elder son Guillaume. A few hours before dying on December 13, 1463, the Prince of Orange asked his cadet son Hugues and his faithful squire Pierre de Jougne to load the treasure on mules and take it away, in the middle of winter, to another castle in Switzerland.