Château de Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne

About

The Château de Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne is a 13th-century castle in the commune of Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne Savoie département of France.

Naming: The castle is known in French records as the Château or Châtel de Saint-Michel, and later as Château sur Saint-Michel. In Latin, its name is Castrum Sancti Michaelis.

The ancient castle, of which only a single tower remains, dominates the town of Saint-Michel-de-Maurienne to the east, on the right bank of the River Arc. The location is a rounded hill called Chambarlet. The castle therefore dominates the town but also an ancient glacial tarn, called Saint-Michel, closed on its downstream side by the glacial remnant of Pas-du-Roc that separates it from Saint-Martin-de-la-Porte, and also closed from the south the access to the valley of Valloirette and the town of Valloire. Finally, it overwhelms the road leading to the Taraise Valley, through the mountain pass of the Encombres and the mountain towns of Beaune and Thyl. The location is strategic, making it "an important military junction position positioned at the crossing of roads leading to Italy, Taraise and Briançonnais". The historic Christian Sorrel wrote that...