Site de la tour du Draillant
Monument
Site de la tour du Draillant, located in Perrignier (Département 74), is a medieval landmark built in the Middle Ages. The monument is currently closed to visitors.
Key facts
- Type
- autre
- Period
- Medieval (11th-15th century)
- Location
- Perrignier, Département 74, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
- Visit
- Closed to visitors
- GPS
- 46.3049, 6.4570
- Mérimée Reference
- PA00118474
An enigmatic medieval vestige nestling in the Savoyard Chablais, the Draillant tower reveals its age-old secrets in the heart of the Haut-Savoyard bocage, a rare example of medieval defensive architecture between Lake Geneva and the Pre-Alps.
History
Perched on the wooded heights of Perrignier, on the edge of the Savoyard Chablais region, the site of the Draillant tower is one of those silent witnesses that history has partially erased but that archaeology continues to bring to light. Listed as a Historic Monument since 1990, the site contains the remains of a watchtower or control tower, whose strategic location reveals a perfect mastery of the defensive and territorial logic specific to the Savoyard Middle Ages. What makes this site truly unique is that it was part of a network of secondary fortifications that criss-crossed the Chablais region between the 11th and 14th centuries. The Tour du Draillant was not a seigniorial castle of spectacular proportions, but a watchtower or toll house, the nodal point in a system for controlling the passageways linking the south shore of Lake Geneva to the Alpine valleys. Its very name - derived from the term "draille", an ancient transhumance route or mule track - evokes this function of monitoring human and commercial flows. The visitor experience is as much a nature walk as an archaeological quest. The site is set in a landscape of rolling green hills typical of the Chablais region, with wet meadows and groves of oak and ash. The surviving stonework, partially buried under lichen and vegetation, is best seen in spring or early autumn, when the low vegetation reveals the outline of the structures. For heritage enthusiasts, this site offers a rare contemplative and scholarly dimension: far from the crowds and digital reconstructions, it invites you to read the medieval territory at first hand, to decipher in the topography the reasons for the existence of a forgotten fortification. The surrounding Savoyard setting, with its occasional views of Lake Geneva and the peaks of the Pre-Alps, lends the site a serenity that neither guidebooks nor interpretive panels can fully convey.
Architecture
The Draillant tower belongs to the category of isolated medieval towers, simple but effective constructions that lined the main traffic routes in the Savoyard Chablais region. In its current state, the remains take the form of a partially levelled masonry mass, the ground plan of which suggests a tower with a quadrangular or sub-circular plan - both forms also being attested in the region for structures dating from the 11th-13th centuries. The dimensions that can be reconstructed suggest a tower with a small footprint (around 6 to 8 metres square or in diameter), corresponding to the standard size of Savoyard watchtowers of the period. The materials used are those of the local building trade: limestone and sandstone in roughly squared blocks, bound with lime, with a blockwork infill characteristic of medieval masonry techniques in the Chablais region. The thickness of the walls, probably between 1.20 and 1.80 metres, ensured sufficient resistance to projectiles and made it possible to install archways or narrow windows in the thickness of the wall. The initial height of the tower, which is impossible to determine with any certainty today, must have been between 10 and 15 metres, enough to ensure an unobstructed view of the surrounding thoroughfares. The site's immediate surroundings may have contained traces of a farmyard or a ditched enclosure, common accompanying structures for this type of fortification. A closer look at the site reveals topographical anomalies - embankments, depressions - which could correspond to former defensive ditches or artificial terraces built to stabilise the tower's foundations. These features, typical of secondary Savoyard castle architecture, have yet to be confirmed by in-depth archaeological investigations.
Related Figures
Pierre II de Savoie (1203-1268), dit « le petit Charlemagne », organisateur du réseau défensif du Chablais savoyardThomas Ier de Savoie (1178-1233), comte sous lequel s'affirme le contrôle savoyard sur le ChablaisAmédée V de Savoie (1249-1323), sous le règne duquel le Chablais atteint sa pleine intégration dans les terres comtalesMembres de la Société Savoisienne d'Histoire et d'Archéologie, érudits du XIXe siècle ayant contribué à l'identification des vestiges médiévaux du Chablais
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Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Site de la tour du Draillant located?
Site de la tour du Draillant is located in Perrignier, Département 74 department, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, France.
When was Site de la tour du Draillant built?
Site de la tour du Draillant dates back to a period built in the Middle Ages (11th-15th century).
Is Site de la tour du Draillant open to visitors?
Site de la tour du Draillant is currently closed to visitors.