History — Montélimar

Today — Open10am-6pm — FEES

A place, a story

The rocky hillock chosen by the Adhémars offered obvious strategic advantages being  close to two major communication routes, the Rhône and the road between Lyon and Arles. On the margins of both the Burgundy and the Provence kingdoms, at the crossroads of powerful bishoprics, this position furthered these feudal lords' autonomy.

St. Peter's chapel (11th century) 
                                                                                                                       

The parish church was built at the end of the 11th century in the first southern Romanesque style. A few antique remnants from a previous building were re-used. The mural of the apse, Christ surrounded by the Evangelists, can be dated back to the end of the 13th century.

A palace then a fortified castle 

The first members of the Adhémar lineage were mentioned as early as 985. At the end of the 11th century, this powerful family took part in the first crusade and at the same period, their name was associated with the place; the name Montélimar actually derives from "Adhémar de Monteil". The first donjon erected by the feudal lords may have been in wood before being built in stone.
The ideal position of the site allowed the control of the communication routes and was far enough away from the political centre of the Empire (Rhineland, Alsace) to enable an independence confirmed in 1164. At the end of the 12th century, Géraud Adhémar had a palace built which flaunted his claims: Emperor Fredric II Barbarossa was a guest there in 1178 and Imperial Diplomas were also signed within its walls.  In 1198, Géraud Adhémar and his brother Lambert, joint feudal lords, signed a charter promising the inhabitants to moderate taxes. The site was fortified in the 13th century with the addition of a square tower followed by a surrounding wall.                                                                                                                                                      There was also a second castle dating back to the same period, of which only the Tower of Narbonne remains today: the two brothers who ended up as rivals thus stated their power.  The objects of greed, notably from the Popes of Avignon in the 14th century, the town of Montélimar and its castles finally went to the French crown in 1449.
                                                                                                                                                         

A citadel

In the 16th century, during the Wars of Religion, the town suffered several sieges before being left to the Protestants until 1622. From 1588, the Duke of Lesdiguières, the head of the Dauphiné reformers, gave orders for a citadel to be built. With its four bastions, it considerably changed the topography of the site. It was surrounded with moats and the main entrance , called the royal door, was to the east, on the town side. In those days, the chapel was used as a powder store and arsenal. The royal officers lived there between 1622 and 1788.

A prison

In 1791, the citadel was transformed into a prison. The prisoners, both men and women, lived in cells spread over the three levels of the dwelling; those on the ground floor remain with graffiti that have survived to this day. In 1926, Montélimar stopped being the capital of the administrative district and the castle ceased to be a prison.

A departmental château

The Adhémars' château became a listed building in 1889 and the Tower of Narbonne and the town curtain wall in 1938. The purchase of the site by the Drôme Department between 1947 and 1955 was followed by several restoration programmes, among which those recently of the chapel and of the inner courtyard, and by its opening to the public in 1983.

Famous people

The Adhémars de Monteil

As early as the 11th century, the Adhémar family was powerful on the banks of the Roubion. They mainly occupied the Monteil ("little mount") where the castle stood. The hillock, as from the 12th century, was called Montilium Aemarii, the Adhémars' Mount, which is the origin of the name Montélimar. Géraud and Lambert Adhémar are known to have been the lords of the place in 1198 since they signed a pithy charter, fortunately preserved, granting the inhabitants liberties and tax exemption. They were followed by a long line of descent, the Adhémars, lords of La Garde, who should be distinguished from the lords of Rochemaure or the lords of Grignan. In the 13th century, the joint lords were vassals of the Bishop of Valence for one, and of the Count of Valentinois, his fiercest enemy, for the other.

The Adhémars' reign over the town ended in the 14th century with the purchase of the castle by the papacy.

Architecture

The Adhémars' château is composed of a complex of fortified components, linked together by a wall with a drawbridge entrance. To the north, a tower can be found, the Tower of Narbonne, built in the 11th century. Twenty-four meters high, this twelve-by-fourteen-metre  donjon was made higher at the end of the 16th century by the Duke of Lesdiguières, the head of the Dauphiné Protestants, who ruled over the town during the Wars of Religion. The building is not open to the public at present.
To the south, beyond the drawbridge, another important tower rises, the former donjon of the castle. It stands in the northern corner of a surrounding wall topped with a rampart walk to the east. Judging from the style of the openings, the whole construction can be dated back to the 13th century.

The seigniorial abode rests within the walls. It is composed of a large hall with a French ceiling from which two staircases lead to the upper floor where a room of vast proportions can be found, the great hall. It carries on with a loggia overlooking the town. Daily-life features are still visible: a large cupboard with a sink, a corner fireplace, a stove, latrine... The whole lot is covered with a tiled terrace. Dating back to the 12th century, the whole building is a remarkable example of a "pleasure residence" within a building designed for defence. The series of windows with their Romanesque rounded arches on the first floor forms quite an exceptional exterior decoration. The arch voussoirs are made of two alternating coloured stones, and the small columns and capitals also  bear a rich decoration.
Close by, to the south, a third edifice is to be found, St. Peter's chapel, also called Sainte-Guitte. It is the oldest building which probably goes back to the 11th century and which only became part of the castle at the end of the Middle Ages. It is a beautiful example of the first Romanesque art of the South of France, with its nave, its transept, its apse surrounded with two apsidioles and its intersecting transept crowned with a rubble masonry dome resting on bonded squinches.

read more