Château de Ray-sur-Saône

In the 10th century a medieval fortress was built on a promontory above the Saône to watch over the river at Ray-sur-Saône, in the Haute-Saône. It was partly demolished during the Ten Years' War, leaving only the curtain wall and towers. The château was rebuilt on the ruins in the 17th and 18th centuries by the architect J.P. Galezot. It was registered as a historic monument in 1979, together with the English park around it.

The château houses a museum displaying mementoes of the Ray and Marmier families, owners for 33 generations. The park covers the whole hill above the village, about 6 hectares in successive terraces bordered by the high walls of the old fortress. Part of it is shaded by large trees: cedars, one particularly majestic specimen 5 metres round at head height, as well as limes, pagoda trees, spruces, pines, beeches, sycamores, ashes and 150-year-old chestnuts. Around 1880 Duke Raynald de Marmier planted a stand of forest trees at the northern end to give the park depth.

← Other sites in Haute-Saône